May 5 update

We did our monthly visit with SoPha and Soporn on Thursday May 6. As usual Soporn looked very well indeed. The news is pretty much the same. She loves school and hates the days when there are no classes. She is looking foward to the package we are sending via Leann who is returning for a visit at the end of this month. Hilary has put together some clothes, shoes and jewelry for her. Apparently when she arrived in Phnom Penh to live with SoPha she had only three pairs of clothes and one pair of shoes. She also brought with her a picture of her father and a picture of a girl on a horse (Hilary). It is my impression that the gifts we sent to her were all taken from her. We had made each sister a photo album with pictures of them with Hilary this summer. She didn't have that nor did she have the locket I gave each girl with their mom and dad's picture inside. It aggravates me that the aunt and uncle could take her things because she lived with them. However, it is their culture and how it works. Sometimes it's very hard to swallow. I asked her if she'd like me to send more pictures and she was very excited. So they are packed and ready to go.

The news from the village unfortunately was not so happy. Apparently Hilary's three month old niece died three weeks ago. It was explained to us that she contracted a fever and never recovered. I can't help but wonder if a $4 bottle of amoxycilin would have saved her life. Needless to say the family was very sad.

We have decided to put together an emergency health account for each of the sisters and their families. Yoen will manage this. We have to work out the details but we are thinking that
they will touch base with us first to
see if we can help. If we can they
will bring their receipt from the
hospital/doctor showing who was
treated and what the treatment cost.
We will then reimburse them. Yoen
has agreed to manage this for us.
We will let you know the details. This
is where we could really use donations.
I was told that a set of x-rays in
Cambodia costs about $6. Much too
expensive for the average person.
Therefore any donation no matter how small will go a long way. If you would like to make a donation please click on the donation link for details. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation you can make the check payable to American Assistance for Cambodia and mail it to me (address on the donations link). The money will be put into our health care account or wherever you specify.

AAfC is an amazing organization that builds schools in Cambodia and encourages parents to get their kids into school instead of the fields. You can check out their web site by using the link to the left. The founder of the organization is Bernard Krisher. Bernie has built over 300 schools as well as a hospital. He also requested permission form JK Rowling to publish Harry Potter in Khmer and the books are selling for 50 cents each. The list goes on. He is going to help us by taking over the task of rent money delivery to SoPha. He will assign someone from his "Girls Be Ambitious" program. Her name is Sokna and she will monitor Soporn's attendence, grades and behavior. None of which I forsee a problem. This will free up Yoen to help me with the health care project. Yoen will still do the Skype visits as well as send pictures.

That is all for now. Please consider sending a donation. Even the change in your pocket, or the money from a skipped cup of Starbucks can make a tremendous difference. Thank you all for your love and support. Talk
to you next month.