Supporting Women through Crisis Pregnancy

Mother's Heart in the past 3 months has been able to take 13 new women into our program for crisis pregnancy care and continue to care for over 40 other women already accepted into our program. Many of these women come from extremely vulnerable backgrounds. Cambodia has very high rates of trafficking, domestic violence, and abandonment. 7 women are HIV+ and need extra special care during their ante natal dleivery and postnatal period. We are privileged to be able to provide this care for these precious women.

Our first HIV+ woman we were able to support through her crisis pregnancy, was able to access ART ( antiretroviral therapy) C-section, ART for her baby and Formula feeding; all these factors cut the transmission rate down substainually.  When a baby from a HIV+ mother is born we must wait 18 months to know whether the child carries the virus or not. Her baby's 18 month HIV test revealed that her baby does not carry the HIV virus. And the relief and excitement was amazing, not only for the mother, grandmother, but also the Mother's Heart staff who have worked hard to support and love each women and baby and to have such wonderful news, rewards their efforts. I know this information would encourage our supporter also, as these results cannot not be done without you.

There is joyful excitement this month in Mother’s Heart also as 3 young single mothers completerd their vocational training courses provided by Mother’s Heart partner organisations Open Arms   

This is no small achievement in a country where 30% of the population is below the poverty line and few favours are granted to women with a crisis pregnancy. Working extremely hard to overcome challenges in literacy and gain the ‘soft skills’ suitable for employment, the graduates are ready for work.

Most women entering Mother’s Heart have minimal education without work skills. Their best hope is often factory work or the risky life of Karaoke bars, where they can expect to work 10 to 12 hours a day, without holidays, for wages from $50 to $80 per month. These are harsh conditions for a single person let alone a woman attempting to raise a child.

Mother’s Heart funds its women to attend the training programmes of Open Arms . Putting its motto “From Training to Enterprise -From poverty to Freedom” into practice, Open Arms trains under privileged young people in a variety of occupations. The Mother’s Heart women have just completed a  6week cooking and cleaning course where they learnt a range of skills, from customer service and producing Western meals to personal hygiene and keeping a restaurant clean.