By Barbara Rosasco | Kasumisou Foundation
Mark has just returned from Cambodia where he met with our Home Care Coordinator and Team to review the status of each family in the FSP. As a part of his visit, Mark also visited almost all of the families currently enrolled in the FSP. This quarterly visit by Mark is a standard practice and it is done in addition to the weekly visits that the Home Care Team makes to each family. During Mark's visits with each family, family status is reviewed and the educational progress of the children is discussed along with any other issues that may need additional attention.
All operational aspects of the FSP continue as described in the program description without any significant exceptions.
We continue to expand our efforts to engage the children in the FSP more actively in order to encourage them to work toward greater academic achievement. As many of the parents in the FSP are illiterate, this additional social support which stresses the importance of education takes on an even more important role.
We see signs that our efforts are beginning to pay off. In the past, children in the FSP almost never voiced dreams involving educational goals, so it was quite exciting when one young lady, age 14 , when showing Mark her rapidly improving English fluency, announced that she aspires to become a doctor! A long time member in our FSP and excellent student, this young teen and her sister , age 10, are both HIV positive and at times symptomatic of AIDS. Her father passed away from AIDS and her mother, who also has AIDS, goes up and down with the her illness.
There are currently about 120 children in the FSP. Of the 89 school age children who in the FSP, we are pleased to note that during the past school year, 5 of our students have been ranked in the top 5 of their class. One child, an orphaned FSP child who is now a permanent boarding student in another Kasumisou Foundation program, is the top ranked student in her middle school class.
The fate of the parents in the FSP has already been decided by their health status: they have HIV/AIDS. However, the children face a world that is still full of possibilities. It remains our continuing goal to help these children to break the cycle of inherited poverty. We feel that a long term effort of providing educational opportunity and building self esteem is vital to achieving that goal.
Funding update:
At the present time you have collectively donated $ 3,925 to our FSP via the GlobalGiving project site. We are also grateful for matching funds of $ 850 that we have received from GlobalGiving bring total FSP donations via the GlobalGiving website to $ 4,775. Total funding costs attributed to GlobalGiving, when including their gift of matching funds average about 5% of the total amount raised via their site.
Donations to the FSP from all other sources, excluding GlobalGiving, now total $61,385, leaving a balance of approximately $ 23,000 yet to fund in order to achieve minimal program funding for the FSP's 75 families. Total projected program costs remain at $ 88,000 per year, or a cost of $ 1118 per family.
Kasumisou Foundation FSP operates and funds itself month-to-month. The continuing economic climate continues to impact all charities with total donations often significantly lower than in past years, with Kasumisou Foundation feeling the same sorts of challenges. Although we are blessed to receive continued support for our projects, at the present time, all of the donations that we receive are quickly used for current program expenditures as we were forced to spend our reserves during the uncertain times of 2008 and 2009 . Until we can begin to restore our reserves, we are keenly aware that a shortfall in 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. So our top priority continues to be to raise funds to support of our existing program commitments and to try to restore our reserve funds once immediate funding commitments are met. Once, again, thank you all very much for your generous support! Your generous support of our programs has enabled many of the mothers in the FSP to living longer, allowing families to stay together longer. A stable lifestyle with adequate 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 Again, thanks so much for making it possible for our programs to continue. Please feel free to contact us for more information at info@kasumisou.org Barbara Rosasco Kasumisou Foundation
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