Help Destitute Moms with AIDS Care for Their Kids

Behind the scenes at Kasumisou Foundation : How a school service  idea gave  birth to a project

Summer 2011 saw our first ever joint service effort.   Our service  team   partners were  17  Junior and Senior students from Seisen International School in Tokyo, Japan.   We first reported on this in our September 2011 update. 

Seisen International School

In June 2011,  Mark, organized and facilitated  a team of 17 students and 2 Seisen teachers for a  10 day volunteer service program   at the Phnom Penh Municipal Orphanage and  the Home of Peace   AIDS  in Phnom Penh. The  Seisen Service  Team,  paid their own way. Their service work was to provide companionship and individual attention to permanently warded children, with mornings spent at the Home of Peace AIDS hospice ( HOP)    and afternoons at the Municipal Orphanage ( MO)

On the first day,   several  Seisen  students bravely held  back  tears as they came to understand the  medical reality of the  fragile  children with whom they would be working.   Many of the  children  at the MO  are extremely limited in their mental and physical abilities.  All of the children  suffer from some type of serious affliction or disability.  Some of the children are permanently confined to bed. Due  to inadequate funding,   these kids   often receive little attention beyond the  basic custodial care of a diaper change and food. Overworked and understaffed, Staff work burdens do not  include  time for cuddling and holding. The Seisen Service Team provided  a rare treat for these kids  to have the  individual attention of holding, rocking,  or singing that our own children so  easily  take for granted.   Other children at the Home of Peace  hospice and the more mobile children at the Orphanage   greatly enjoyed a chance for personalized  attention, small crafts activities  and games. 

Background

In May 2011,  the European NGO   that had provided much of the funding support for  Municipal Orphanage  said that they must end their  support  after 10 years to  their own funding challenges,   leaving dire gaps in funding for essential services for the children at the Orphanage.

Although Kasumisou Foundation continues have its own serious funding challenges, operating its programs  on month to month budgets. However,  the  dire funding needs for the most fragile children at  Orphanage, caused Kasumisou Foundation to take on the task of providing supplemental support to the Orphanage. We could already see from the success of our Seisen Service Team that we could make a meaningful difference.  We decided to  add the “ Malnutrition Room ” room at the Orphanage,  which  is home to the most medically fragile children who require specialized support for their survival, to our   FSP  project budget. 

 While immensely satisfying, this addition to our program roster is also heartrending: we have lost three of  these fragile  children   in the past 6 months.

Our New Project

Our support for  the Orphanage includes assuming  the salary responsibilities  of the  two full time staffers  who man  the Malnutrition Room 24/7.  Additionally , we feel that human touch and kindness is an essential part of the care of all children, so  we have  recruited 3 of our older teenagers from own   FSP families. These young women  volunteer ½ day of  their time 3 to 4 days per week working to play and provide comfort  through physical contact to the children. Our young volunteers   also serve  as helpers with  diaper changing and feeding  for these and other children at the Orphanage. We pay their transportation costs.

There are currently about 115 children at the Orphanage:  1/3 have AIDS, the remaining children sufferfrom serious medical conditions including Cerebral Palsy, Downs Syndrome and a variety of  severe birth defects. Many of these children  are bedbound and are not able to feed themselves.  Particularly for children with severe CP, feeding can take considerable time.  The total cost of the support of the “ Malnutrition Room “  program assistance is  $ 6,000  to $ 7,000  per year.

Our Service Team Results

The students and teachers who were on the Seisen Service Team returned to school in the fall,  eager to tell about their experience in Cambodia.  The enthusiasm of  the entire  team , both  students teachers alike, created an amazing “ Can do” attitude and a willingness to do their best at each and every task. It was the great success of the Seisen Service Team  that inspired Kasumisou Foundation  to take on the responsibility funding the Malnutrition Room at the Municipal Orphanage and  to encourage our own Family Support teenagers to get involved and  to give something  back to children who are even less fortunate than themselves.

Our sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone at Seisen International School and the entire Service Team for a great joint project. We cannot think of a better way to start a Service Team program.

FSP in Action and Changing Lives

Mark returned this week from his quarterly trip to Cambodia where he met with almost all  FSP  program families  and

conducted his standard  line-item review of the AIDS Patient Family Support Program and other Kasumisou Foundation programs.  The FSP continues without significant exception or change, maintaining a stable composition of 75 patient families and approximately 120 dependent children.

Its hard for us to explain to our supporters just how great it is to be able to report " no change".  All of our patient families have already endured a great deal of individual and/or  family trauma, so  status condition reports of " no change" and " stable"  are a welcome  relief  and change to patient families  as the trauma that so often impacts the very poor can cause violent shifts in the flow of daily life. 

In this quarterly report, we would like to share the story of  one of  "our"  kids in the Family Support program to show you how the FSP, bit by bit,  really can change young lives. For privacy, we will refer to our young lady as " Kay".  Here is Kay's family history as best we can piece it together.  

Kay's Story....

Kay is one of three children and she is from the outskirts of a "cross roads" town where two highways intersect in the countryside in the county of Kampong Cham.  This town is about 2 1/2 hours away from Phnom Penh, the capital city, by car.    Some years ago, Kay's mother and father both became extremely ill as a result of AIDS, causing them to lose everything and become extremely poor. At this time, with both parents gravely ill, and no means of support,  Kay's mother gave away the older children.  The location of those older children remains unknown.   Kay's father died, leaving just Kay and her mother alone in the family and in desperate circumstances.

Kay's mother left Kampong Cham and , together with Kay, catching rides as best they could,  traveled to Phnom Penh to try to seek medical treatment.  Kay, now 14 years old, came to us  6 years ago when her mother, homeless and  gravely ill from AIDS joined the FSP.  Within a few months, Kay's mother died in the charity ward at the Russian Hospital in Phnom Penh, leaving Kay all but an orphan.  We learned that Kay's grandmother, a widow who  had lost her husband to a brutal death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge during the Civil War years,  was still living  in Kampong Cham.  In recent years, Kay's grandmother had  lived in extreme poverty, surving  only on  the kindness of neighbors.

We made arrangements for Kay to return to Kampong Cham to  live with her grandmother.   Extremely poor and with failing eyesight, Grandmother could not, on her own, afford to take care of or provide medical care for Kay.

Kasumisou Foundation's FSP stepped in and developed a practical low cost plan to enable this tiny family of grandmother and grand-daughter to stay together.  A kindly neighbor in Kampong Cham allowed the FSP to build a  house on their land: a tiny bamboo thatch house, with tin roof and dirt floor was built and became home. The house has a single room.

In the 6 years that Kay has been in the FSP, she has impressed us with her courage and ability.  Kay, herself, has AIDS.  Despite this, she has been the top student in her class for several years.  Her current class in a government run school, is  an 8th grade class  which has  45 students.  Kay is the top student in the class. Additionally, Kay studies English in a group class of 12 students (her class fee sponsored by Kasumisou Foundation) where she is also the top student.  Over the years, Kay's grandmother's severe cataracts have made her nearly blind.  Kay, at age 14, takes care of her 85 year old grandmother and  keeps the household going in the little one room house.  Kay is an honors student in school, top in her class, attends English class and she also works part time in a market stall to bring in money to the family.   In frail health, Kay's grandmother will soon turn 86.  Grandmother has requested that Kay become a ward of Kasumisou Foundation should the grandmother pass away. 

The FSP brings Kay to Phnom Penh once per month by rural taxi ( $ 12) so that her illness ( AIDS) can be monitored and managed. To date, she has remained in good health and has bright hopes for the future.  It is interesting to know that a rural taxi is nothing more than a flat trailer pulled by a motorcycle, or it might also be an opened  pick up truck and once in a while an overcrowded van.  The trip is about 2 1/2 hours each  way.

The long term approach of " family support" by Kasumisou Foundation  makes it possible for Kay to pursue her dream to become a teacher of Khmer ( Cambodian) literature and English.

We hope that this project report will give you a better idea of some of  the many ways that the Kasumisou Foundation AIDS Patient Family Support Program ( FSP) works to help needy families in crisis and to help the children of those families work to break the cycle of inherited poverty.

We are deeply grateful to you all for your generous support.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco