Help Destitute Moms with AIDS Care for Their Kids

Impact of mega-disasters on small NGOs-

On March 2, NY Times Nick Kristof responded to Kasumisou Foundation and discussed the funding impact of mega disasters on small NGOs. Adequate and stable funding is what allows Kasumisou to continue to help people like Mrs. San ( profiled below) who has just joined the AIDS Patient Family Support Program. See NYTimes.com- Nicholas D. Kristof's Blog link below Please meet our newest family: Mrs. San is a 30 year old mother with HIV/AIS and a 2nd grade education. Despite these challenges, she has been trying to raise her children on her own for the past year. A mother of three children ages 8,4 and 16 months, San was infected with HIV by her husband who abandoned her once she showed symptoms of AIDS. The only home that she can provide for her children is the shack you see in the slide show which she watches over in return for free rent. Sadly, San could not afford to feed her children, causing them to suffer from serious malnutrition. Little Lo Ud, age 4 is seen here standing before her front steps. Now our Family Support Program will provide adequate food and family support. The FSP Home Care Team will visit San at least once a week to make certain that she and her children will have enough nutritious food and access to the medical care that they need. Our Home Care Team is also a key resource to arrange for patient access to free medical resources, to enroll and keep children in school and to carefully monitor each family’s particular situation, with particular attention paid to the safety, welfare and nutrition for the children. Over the coming weeks we will also assess San’s housing situation and monitor her son in school. Funding update: In the past three months you have donated $ 3,487 to our FSP via the GlobalGiving project site. We are also grateful to GlobalGiving for additional matching funds of $ 850 bringing total donations via GlobalGiving to $4,337. Now, as we reach the end of the 1st Quarter, we report that we also received $7110 from other donors, for a combined total of $11,447, representing 13.6% vs 25% of the total program funding that is needed for 2010. Understandably, we have experienced a noticeable shift in donor participation as donors inform us that efforts are more focused on raising funds for Haiti relief projects. We currently serve 75 single parent families who suffer from mid to late stage AIDS and their 125 dependent children. Adding up the numbers: When you add it all up: our super-efficient FSP supports a family at a cost of $93 per month. Multiply $93 x 75 families x 12 and this equals the total minimum annual funding need for these 200 people or about $84,000. This equates to $1116 per family per year and approximately $420 per person. In addition to the basic cost per family we also require funds to pay for school costs, supplies and uniforms bringing us to our projected annual program cost of $88,000. Funding challenges and Opportunity Tuesday, 16 March 2010 is a GlobalGiving Matching Day! Boost the value of your contribution by taking advantage of the Global Giving match program. All donations (up to $1,000 per person) made to our project through GlobalGiving.org on that day will automatically be matched at 30%. Kasumisou Foundation FSP operates and funds itself month-to-month. The economic climate has hit all charities very hard. Adding to this challenge is the impact of current disasters around the world. Lack of funding means that we would immediately be forced to stop our support of these 75 families and causing these mothers and their children become homeless within the month. We must all try to remember that new projects present an opportunity to expand our donor support to include newly urgent needs, but try to continue our support of existing commitments. Thank you for your support! Because of the generous support of our donors, many of the mothers in the FSP are living longer and families can stay together. A stable lifestyle, good nutrition and housing support allows these mothers to qualify for free anti-retroviral medications through programs such as the UN’s Global Fund for Aids,Malaria and Tuberculosis. Social oversight is a vital part of our program and we are hopeful that over longer term allow we can help the children in these families break out of the poverty cycle Please feel free to contact us for more information at info@kasumisou.org Again, thanks so much for your support of our efforts. Barbara Rosasco Kasumisou Foundation

Links:

• NY Times - Nick Kristof-3-2-2010