Build dreams! Send Cambodian Students to College!

We started 2021 with five university students receiving full tuition support from our program.  However, at the close of the first quarter we are down to only three students.

Our only male student, was an AIDS orphan who is now in his mid twenties and  who grew up in our AIDS Patients Family Support Program (FSP) . This young man  has been working, for some years,  as a delivery driver for a wholesale distributor of home cleaning products.  He was the .primary source of support for his AIDS afflicted grandmother as well as for  his teenage cousin and himself.  The family’s home is located far outside of the city but his university and his job are both located in the center of town which added a significant commuting time component to his already very tough schedule.  Early this year he surprised us by getting married.   We   discussed this with him and we all agreed ,that the combination of a new wife, a full time job and the need to continue supporting his grandmother and his young cousin would leave insufficient time to successfully pursue his studies at this time.

A second student is a young woman whose mother is afflicted by AIDS and has been in our AIDS Patients Family Support Program (FSP) for more than fifteen years.  Our staff has felt  for some time  that this student  was not meeting the standard of  commitment which we required of students who want our support for their university studies. This student, despite taking only a  partial  course load, unlike our other students, did not take on , at the very least,  a part time job.  At a time when we are asking staff members to take pay cuts, we were uncomfortable  with her attitude  and lack of commitment. Consequently, we have  dropped her from the program although her mother continues to receive support from our FSP.

The remaining three students, all female, are doing extremely well in their studies.  Two of them work full time at our Champey Academy of Arts and take their university classes in the evenings.  The third young woman is now in her second year of nursing school and we are proud to say that her results form her first year of study were nearly all A’s.  All three of these young women  have been associated with Kasumisou Foundation since they were children and we know them well.  We are very confident in saying that we expect great things from all of them once they complete their studies.   

For the time being, due to the impact of COVID on all aspects of our programs, we will continue to support these three students, but we  will pause, for the time being, any consideration of new students..

We have attached a copy of the transcript  for our nursing student, edited for personal information. What a joy to see so many As and  a 3.98 GPA !

Your generous support has made higher education possible for these three students. Truly, you are changing lives  and we are deeply grateful to you all for your support.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco 

Reminder:  Tuesday, December 1 is Giving Tuesday where GlobalGiving will offer a proportional match on  donations  up to  $ 2500 . This year GlobalGiving will have $ 1 million in Matching Funds !  

A Kasumisou Scholar gives back to others ! 

Earlier this year we  had reported that  in response to the Covid-19 threat, the Cambodian  government shut down much of the economy including  all of  the  schools and universities for the month of April.  In recent months, some things in Cambodia , such as the schools, have  returned to normal.  The government re-opened the schools and universities in August and our  five Kasumisou Scholars have all returned to classroom learning.  However, the economic impact of COVID  on the country has been severe, gravely impacting the two biggest drivers of the  "new" Cambodian  economy, the garment industry and  tourism, both of which remain in a severe recession.

This month we would like to  put a spotlight  on one student, Ms. S, currently age 24.  

Ms. S  is studying English language education and she aspires  one day, to  become an English professor.  She is hopeful that she will be able to complete her Bachelor’s degree program at  the beginning of 2022.  

Ms. S supports herself by working  full time  in the office at Champey  Academy. Juggling studies with work,  Ms. S continues to work hard toward her degree, hoping that upon completion, she will be able to go on to graduate school in pursuit of her dream of becoming a professor.  Ms. S. continues, as she has done for years , to work  extremely hard to  improve her own  life.

Giving back ! 

We are excited to report that recognizing  the opportunities that education can offer to kids from disadvantaged backgrounds like so many of the young students at our Champey Academ of Arts, Ms. S has recently decided to “ give back” and  to help others by volunteering to teach English to a roster of about 10 students from our art and dance school during her lunch hour.

Your generous support of our program has given  Ms. S and our other students  an opportunity  to transform their lives, giving them a real chance to break the cycle of inherited poverty.

We are so very grateful to you all for your support.

Wishing a joyful holiday season.

Barbara & Mark

In response to the Covid-19 threat, the Cambodian  government shut down nearly the entire economy for one month in April. This included all of  the schools and universities.  The COVID virus itself has, to date at least, not seriously impacted Cambodia and many  things are largely back to normal, but  the tourism industry and schools continue to be severely affected.  Recently the government has discussed a phased re-opening of private schools and the complete re-opening of all public schools by November.

Currently, the universities that are attended by our five Kasumisou Scholars students offer only on-line study and  they have not yet given any clear indication as to  when they will resume classroom learning. 

Ms. S  is 22 years old.  She is in the second year of her four year Bachelor’s degree program in International Relations.  All of her classes are conducted in English.  For the time being, all study is online on-line only.  After completing her Bachelor’s degree program she hopes to pursue a graduate degree with the ultimate goal of working in a government ministry.

Ms. S  is  24 years old. She is studying English language education with the ultimate goal of being an English language teacher.  She expects to complete her Bachelor’s degree program by the beginning of 2022.   Currently all of her study is being done on-line and her university has given no clear indication of when they expect to resume classroom teaching. 

Ms. C is 19 years old and she is studying in the first year of a Bachelor’s degree in business. Her school is currently only offering online instruction and like many students in Cambodia and indeed in the US,  she is finding  that  it is too difficult to manage, so she will pause and  take a gap time until in-classroom study resumes. 

Ms. O is 20 years old.  She is currently in the final month of her first year of study at a university specializing in business and government related courses.  She will start her second year of study in October. Currently, all classes at her university are offered only online.  All classes at her university are offered only in Khmer (the Cambodian language) and Ouksa does not speak any English.  Her family has received  support from our AIDS Patient Support program for many years. 

Vichet ( first name)   is 26 year old.  We have  followed the progress of Vichet for a long time. Orphaned by AIDS at a very young age, Vichet has lived with his grandmother and his high school age female cousin. This fragile family has received support from our AIDS Patient Family Support program for approximately 18 years. Vichet worked full time loading trucks ,to help support his family, while studying and  eventually, passing,  the national high school exam at age 24, a prerequisite for attending college. Vichet started college in fall of 2019, continuing to work full time as a delivery truck driver for a company distributing household cleaning and hygiene products in the Phnom Penh area. 

Currently, Vichet’s school offers only online instruction and Vichet  finds it extremely  difficult to keep up.  Under the format used by his school, students  cannot ask questions and students become lost  when there is something which requires further explanation. Vichet will temporarily stop his studies until his school resumes to its original format of in-class instruction.

Your support is important !

The COVID 19 virus  has caused significant challenges for students and  universities around the world,  interrupting the studies of dedicated,  purpose-filled students. Some students are more able  to adapt to the new world  of  on line instruction ,  while other, equally capable students find that online classes do not fully meet their needs. We are hopeful that each one of our students will be able to continue their courses of studies.

All of our students have faced and overcome remarkable challenges to get to this point. Your continued support , believing in their ability to succeed, is important as they continue to work through  today’s challenges, toward their goals.

We are deeply grateful.

Barbara  & Mark Rosasco

Kasumisou Scholars – GlobalGiving quarterly update for April 3, 2020

Mark was in Phnom Penh in late February and was able to visit with our students. We currently have a roster of 5  students. Over the past few months, our students have been working hard and they have  continued to make progress in their studies.

In the third week of March, as a result of the coronavirus crisis,  the Cambodian government ordered all schools, including universities, to close. As a result of the government order, our young scholars have been studying at home.

The recent  semester of the 2020 academic year finished at the end of March and our students  are now at home and waiting for the start of the new semester which will begin  on April 6.  For the foreseeable future, all teaching will be done online . It will be  a totally new experience for both the teachers and the students so everybody is proceeding somewhat tentatively.  Online learning will present particular challenges for our first year nursing student, where hands on experiences are an important part of the program.  Hopefully, the government’s shelter-at-home order will be lifted before too  long so that our students can return to their physical campuses and normal routines.

Despite these changes, our students remain determined to continue their studies without interruption and achieve their dream of a college degree.

The Kasumisou Scholars program  is only possible because of the generous support of you, our donors. Now, particularly, in these challenging times, we hope that we will  be able to maintain our support for  these students who have overcome remarkable challenges and obstacles to come this far.

We are deeply grateful for your support.

Barbara & Mark Rosasco

2020 has started off with a bang !  

This week one of our Kasumisou Scholars has received the very exciting news that, on her second attempt, she passed the examination for admission to the only nursing school in Phnom Penh.  She will begin her study early in the new year and she  will  at last,   be on a track to realize her long held dream to have  a career in nursing.

This young lady, now 19 years old, has grown up together with her older sister, in our  Family Support Program (FSP) and she  has, since the middle of last year, been working part time at our Champey Academy of Arts. 

The girls’ mother died in our program in 2002 and left behind two daughters, then aged about 3 and 5, who have since then been in the care of their mother’s childhood friend and who, for many years, received support from our family support program Both sisters have, for many years, been sponsored for their education expenses by a generous family in the U.S. and that family has expressed an interest to help with the very considerable cost of the three year nursing program on which the younger sister is about to embark. 

This young scholar and her older sister who also works at our Champey Academy of Arts  also studies at a university with the support of a scholarship provided by Kasumisou Foundation.  Both  have come a long way from the days when they and their mother were homeless and their mother was critically ill and soon to pass away. 

We are very proud and  hopeful for this young woman who has overcome so much adversity in her life and who   is now about to pursue the nursing degree which will make her career dreams a reality and by doing so break the cycle of inherited poverty.

The pathway to success for the students in our program is only possible because of the generous support of our wonderful donors. This young lady, like all of our other students, have overcome staggering obstacles , working many years against incredible odds to  achieve  their dreams of completing a college education.

Our very best wishes  for a wonderful 2020    to all of our donors.  Truly your support of this young lady and our other students has changed lives . On behalf of our students and ourselves, please accept our heartfelt thanks for your generous supporr. 

Barbara & Mark Rosasco