Roteang Orphanage
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Roteang Orphanage ( January, 2002)
Orphanage In Operation for One-Year, Now Our Focus Turns to the Future!
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| On December 14, 2001, Roteang Orphanage celebrated its first year with balloons, cake, fruit, and a party for all. |
Roteang
Orphanage turns one-year-old on December 14, the day we moved in with a new director,
Dr. Ly Srey Vyna, a new staff, plus 16 nannies and 16 children transferred from
old Cham Chao. A year later, 150 children have been under our care.
About a dozen children have come for safekeeping at the orphanage, and then biological families have come back for them; one died of neonatal tetanus a few days after arrival, and we had one crib death. Over 60 have gone to American homes in this year, but more than 70 remain in the orphanage as of this writing, some awaiting clearance for U.S. homes.
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| Roteang Orphanage cares for a number of children with disabilities that will keep them from ever being adopted. Children like, left, Choup Nath, Sok Eang, and Socheat Pov, are HIV-PCR positive and will develop AIDS within a few years. | ||
Some of the children are tiny babies recently abandoned and needing extended care and feeding, 16 have come with HIV, several with cerebral palsy, severe feeding difficulties, or other handicaps. Frequently, people arrive at our gate with an infant who has been turned away from other orphanages; many of these children have a tiny needle hole in the crook of their elbow, automatically notifying us that they have been tested for HIV, found positive, and rejected by other orphanages.
Previous
newsletters have detailed the three children TSF has taken to Bangkok this year
for medical care not available in Cambodia. Song
Tola, our little 1-year-old whose heart defect was bringing her life to
an early close, has now had her surgery in Bangkok, and is back at Roteang where,
for the first time, she is smiling and interacting with other children. She will
soon have an adoptive family.
As
our efforts in Cambodia have grown over the last year, we have also tried to begin
securing our future work through the establishment of an endowment. A five-year
matching grant from the Brook Family Foundation for $100,000 has already made
its first $20,000 contribution. Other, private donations have secured another
$15,000 for the fund.
TSF’s
directors are now in the process of developing a long-term investment strategy
for the fund, and we are continually working to raise additional donations and
matching grants. The support for this fund makes it certain we will meet our goals
to keep our long-term mission a success.
Our
main objectives for the next year are to continue to ensure the excellence of
care at Roteang Orphanage with sufficient, well-trained nannies, abundant food,
pure water, excellent medical care, well maintained buildings, and a secure and
supportive environment for everyone living there. This costs about $11,000 per
month for 60 plus children and a staff of over 40. Diesel fuel to provide our
energy is a huge part of the cost, and we are exploring ways to convert to solar
power.
We
are hoping to increase the number of families in our Farm Project and we will
maintain and widen our large involvement with the local schools, a role we believe
will be vital for the community’s long-term economic improvement. We are
continuing to operate our sewing program for girls, but are considering substituting
other vocational training that might prove valuable to local youths.
And as always, we will be on the lookout for those special children who need medical care outside what is available in Cambodia and try on case-by-case basis to solve the problems.
We fervently wish
we could afford to address the HIV treatment problem in at least some children
- as yet no one in Cambodia has - and are trying to work on
this.
Our outreach projects are thriving, and indeed, the lives of hundreds of children are being improved by TSF!