| CAMBODIA:
Project HALO| Hope, Assistance, and Love for Orphans
by Hok Phearom & Tucker FitzGerald
Cambodia is one of the poor Southeast Asia Countries that has been devastated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has in turn caused more poverty. The many HIV/AIDS deaths have left 77,000 orphans in their wake. The final stages of AIDS are particularly difficult for parents as they face their own death. HALO’s Home Care Staff is constantly facing the question, “who is going to take care of my children when I die?” It was in the face of this painful aspect of the epidemic that Project HALO (Hope, Assistance, and Love for Orphans) was created in 2000, working to support AIDS orphans and place them in safe communities. Project Halo helps parents facing their death make plans for the future care of their children.
Project HALO’s work is focused in a slum South-east of the capital city Phnom Penh, the Mean Chey District. The people living there are immigrants from the countryside, looking for employment as garment factory workers, taxi drivers, or construction laborers… and they have little or no education.
Since the beginning, Project HALO has supported more than a thousand children (1040) impacted by HIV/AIDS within eight communes of Mean Chey District. Currently there are around 520 children who are active in the project, and many of our graduates have gone of to get married and hold jobs.
The key for children in Project HALO is education. Education can break the cycle of poverty in Cambodia and enable children to have a sustainable future.
After the death of their parents, most of children are taken in by grandparents, uncles and aunts. But these family members are usually living in poverty themselves, and are not able to pay the cost of an education. In response to this need, project HALO invests in their lives by providing school sponsorships. In addition to this, project HALO provides holistic care for children. We offer food assistance to 45 families whose caregivers can’t earn enough to support the children in their homes, and we have provided six families houses by donating the necessary building materials.
Noun Kim Sros’s Story
Noun Kim Sros, is a 17 year-old girl, in the 9th grade at Chbbar Ampouv 2 High School .She has four siblings: her older brother Vorn; her older sister Chhaya (Ya); her younger brother Rasa and lastly her little sister Monorea.
Earlier in life they all lived relatively happily with their widowed mother. But after their mother’s remarriage, things headed downhill. She became distant and negligent, and they were constantly in conflict about their new step father. Soon the mother proposed selling their house and land, and moving away with her new husband. After Sros’ older sister Ya learned about this, she immediately brought it up with HALO staff, concerned that the children were going to loose their inheritance and be orphaned. They felt like their stepfather was casually spending money that was badly needed for basic necessities for the children, and would spend this money as well. The children’s resistance enraged the stepfather and he finally pressured their mother to kick them out of the house.
Fortunately, the day they were kicked out an MIPC team was visiting Cambodia, and Sros’ sponsor (Nancy Murphy) had stopped by to visit. Deeply concerned by the children’s plight, the MIPC team immediately made plans to provide for the rent for the children to live on their own, through HALO.
Life on their own hasn’t been easy. While her older sister Ya began working with ministry Slumlight (which creates jobs for the poor) as a group leader, Sros had a harder time adjusting. Feeling disappointed with her mother, Sros initially dropped out of school, spending time on the streets, and coming home at all hours of the night. Soon, HALO staff and Ya began to intervene, spending time with her and reminding her of the value of her education. Now Sros has begun to make peace with her new life, taking her education seriously and taking better care of herself. She’s in school and excelling in her classes. |
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Sros, Chhaya (Ya), Rasa and Monorea.
Request for Prayer:
- Please
pray for the children and their families as they wrestle with the food
inflation. Many staples doubled in price in about four months, and many
of families in the project need food assistance.
- his
is the hot season in Cambodia. Many children are infected with chicken
pox and other illnesses. Please pray that the children would be safe
from disease and for an early rainy season.
- Cambodia
will be having an election for prime minister this July. Please pray
for justice for Cambodia and as well as justice for the voters. May God
bring change to our society.
- Pray
for the children in project HALO that they will continue to have the
opportunity to go school and that they will stay in school for a long
time. Peer pressure from drug addicts is a real temptation for some of
our children, which almost always leads to dropping out off school.
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