Build dreams! Send Cambodian Students to College!

Ms. S. has been in Kasumisou programs for many years. Now in her early 20s, Ms. S ( and her family ) have been receiving support from our AIDS Patient Family Support Program. Ms. S  had come  to us when she was about 4 years old, around the time that her father died of AIDS. Throughout her life, Ms. S has faced a series of challenges that most of us would find unimaginable.

Throughout her academic career – in primary and secondary school – S. consistently ranked near the top of her class.   Her dream was to become a physician but, because S. has suffered since birth from serious medical issues herself, her family felt that the demands of medical school would be too much for her. After Ms. S graduated from high school she enrolled at the National University of Management (NUM) where she achieved good results until, early in 2015, when she became gravely ill and began to experience loss of motor control in her right hand and leg.

On the advice of doctors in Phnom Penh, we sent S. and her mother to Bangkok , which was an 11 hour bus ride each way. We arranged for an examination and consulted with a neuro-surgeon at a top hospital there. Fortunately, unlike the US, medical tests in Bangkok were somewhat “affordable”. Ms. S. was found to have a brain tumor in precisely the location of the brain which controls the body’s motion and movement. The tumor was located deep inside the brain where surgical removal would be very dangerous. The doctors recommended that we first try drug treatment, primarily anti-inflamatant, to arrest further growth of the tumor and treat the symptoms. So far, that treatment has halted the tumor’s growth and nearly eliminated the frequent bouts of nausea and severe headaches from which S. had suffered. Unfortunately, she continues to have only very limited use of her right hand and some impairment in the use of her right leg.

The tumor diagnosis came in the Spring of 2015 and, at that time, a decision was made for S. to suspend her studies at the NUM and focus on her treatment.

Ms. S is a person with considerable determination. After just a few months of treatment, she was able to return to her part time job at our Champey Academy of Arts where she does primarily accounting work but also greets the tourists who visit the school, explaining to them the mission and program of instruction at Champey Academy and sharing with them some basic information about Cambodian traditional arts.

 A second chance

The more than one year which S. spent dealing with her cancer gave her time to reflect on her academic career and future career goals . With input from her family and our team, a decision was made for S. to pursue a degree in English language and literature with the goal of eventually becoming a professor of English. To achieve that goal, S. needs to gain entry into Phnom Penh’s distinguished and highly selective Institute of Foreign Languages.

 With that interim goal in mind last autumn we enrolled S. in a rigorous program of English language instruction at Phnom Penh’s most respected English language school, the Australian Centre for English (ACE). In January, S. completed her first term at ACE with an aggregated score of 79 out of a possible 100. Her final individual grades showed her to be especially strong in reading and vocabulary but with some room for improvement in her writing and speaking ability. We intend to look for opportunities for S. to get additional practice and possibly outside tutoring to help her improve both her speaking and writing abilities while she works to complete the remaining five semester levels of instruction at ACE.

We fully support S.’s decision to pursue a degree in English language and literature and her ultimate goal of becoming a professor of English.   We believe this goal is very much aligned with her abilities and her personality and we hope to have the resources to help her achieve her dream.

Your help and donations help students like Ms. S to build their dreams, even dreams  that may at times seem impossible.

The students in our program have all had to overcome remarkable challenges to pursue their goal of a college education. How wonderful that having done so, we can be a part of their success by helping with tuition and other assistance.

Thank you so much for your support!

Barbara & Mark Rosasco