Help Destitute Moms with AIDS Care for Their Kids

As you know, our program has been serving  HIV/AIDs afflicted women and children  in Cambodia  for more than 25 years. For much  of this time, we had supported approximately 75 AIDS afflicted women and  their 100 to 125 dependent  children , many of whom also suffered from HIV infection. Thanks to the  successful introduction of anti-retroviral drug therapy in Cambodia, which began in 2002 and which eventually, over several years reached nearly all of Cambodia's AIDs afflicted poor , we found that  fewer patients were dying  and instead we had  developed a roster of chronically ill program participants..  Starting in  2013 , we were able to gradually reduce our number of program participants by about half, as a consequence of successful drug therapy  which allow some restoration of general health and a return to self sufficiency. This reduction was also assisted by a general improvement in the Cambodian economy which provided employment opportunities  for more part time workers and which   increased  family incomes. 

From 2017 onward, as more and more of our women recovered their health to the degree necessary to allow them to work to support themselves and their children, we further reduced our patient numbers to approximately 20-25 women  and  15 their dependent children. By the  end of 2023 , due to the deaths of some of our women and as some of the children grew up and became independent, our roster had  fallen to 18 adults and 7 children.  Many of the adults in our  program, in our opinion, are unlikely to ever be capable of living independently. 

Now in January 2024 as we survey our program participants and evaluate  the  their condition,  this month we will further reduce our numbers. Three women, who have all been  in our program for at least 20 years, have been selected to leave the program because their children are now fully grown and  successfully working, earning an independent living and capable of taking on the support of their mothers.  

There is a certain degree of fragility in each of these women's situations, but, due to the precarious funding situation of Kasumisou Foundation, we feel that it is necesary to begin cutting our spending . After careful evaluation, we  have selected these three women to reduce our program numbers, because we feel that  they are now able to survive without our support.  

Needless to say, it is a painful decision  to cut these three women, all of  whom have been with us since the early days of our program. However, we finally made this very difficult decision, feeling   that we could no longer postpone cutting program expenditures if we are  to keep the program running, providing support for other  participants who have no other resources. 

The  savings  by cutting these three women from our program will be about $ 285 per month  which is $3420  per year. As three of the healthiest  womein in the program, the amount of support which each of them received was at lower end in the range of support which we provide to any of our women.   As we move forward into 2024, we hope that further cuts will not be necessary because the circumstances  of most of the remaining women in the program are far more precarious,  to the point that we question whether they could possibly survive without the support that is provided by our program. 

Over these many years, your generous support and great kindness has enabled these fragile individuals and their children to live a simple , dignifiied life, instead of being subjected to the horrors of street life.  As a consequence of  reduced  funding, a consequence of  the economic  impact of COVID on our donors and funding, and which have  combined with the impact of inflation, we are faced with diffficult decisions to keep this program running.

We hope that  you will continue your support of this essential program as we move forward through the new year. At the present time, this program  has  month to month funding  which is not ideal for our  participants who depend up our program for long term assistance. 

Thank you again .

Barbara & Mark 

                     GlobalGiving's Fall 2023

             Little by Littlle Match Campaign 

50% match on donations up to $50 Sept. 18~ 22

In this autumn of 2023 we celebrate 25 years of supporting AIDS afflicted women and their children in Cambodia, who have been  primarily (but not always)  located  in Phnom Penh.  

We never envisioned that so many women and kids would transition through this program  or that we would to do this work for so many years. Regretably, we did not accurately track the many  women and children served by our program, particularly in the early years. Over the course of these 25  years  a great number of these women and  their children died. Others transitioned out of the program because, with the resources  and stable lifestyle provided by our program, they were about to regain their health to a degree which allowed them to become independent.  Although some survived only a few weeks or months after entering the program, others, including a few who joined us in the first year (1999) are still with us today. 

Our program has changed over the years, evolving with the times.  In 2013, our program director ( a former nun)  decided to return to religious life after having led  our program  for eleven years. In combination with this change and given the dramatic improvement in medical care and AIDS patient survival rates in Cambodia and throughout Southeast Asia , we began reducing the numbers of women receiving support from our program. 

Now, ten years later we continue to support  23 adults and about 13 children through this program  with a projected average total cost of approximately $2,500  to $ 3,000 per month. The approximate cost reflects unexpected expenses that can sometimes occur and the continuing impact of rising inflation, which is of particular concern. There are few , if any,  public resources to provide assistance  to these families. 

• Of the 23 adults still receiving support, six are women over the age of 70.  Two are women who have suffered crippling strokes and are now partially paralyzed and, therefore, unable to care for themselves. They rely on their adult children to care for them but since those children have incomes which only barely allow them to support themselves and their own children, we continue to provide food and housing support for those two stroke victims.   

• One of the six women over the age of 70 is actually in her early eighties.  Her daughter died in our program more than fifteen years ago and left her mother with two young grandchildren to support.  Those two children, a boy and a girl, are now both in their twenties but the boy has suffered since birth from very severe developmental disabilities. He is incapable of taking care of himself and he requires constant supervision – day and night. His grandmother and his sister sell vegetables by the side of street in their neighborhood to supplement the modest support which they receive from our program.  We worry constantly about what will happen to that young man when his grandmother dies.   

Your loyal support over these many years has empowered us to help countless women and children impacted by twin burdens of extreme poverty and HIV/AIDs.  Each case has been unique requiring  active attention and some degree of supervision.  Our goal now is to continue to maintain  support for  these fragile families as long as we can.

We hope that you will join with us and participate in the GlobalGiving Little by Little Campaign which will offer a 50% match on donations up to $ 50 . Each and every donation helps us to be able to continue in our effort to support these familes , who otherwise would likely be living on the streets.

We are deeply grateful to you for your support.

Barbara and Mark