A blog from my squad mate Abby
This month we are living in Phnom Phen, Cambodia working at the Cambodia Hope Association Orphanage. There are 30 beautiful children and 10 youth that live at this loving home. We are helping with their English studies, educating them on Hyguine, and teaching them Biblical Stories.
As I sat and talked to Rithy, the founder, this afternoon I realized how absolutely desperate the situation is here. In Cambodia there are over 750,000 orphans or other vulnerable children ( those who have been abandoned or whose family members have terminal illnesses and cannot care for them). Over 50% of the Cambodian society is 19 or younger due to the genocide that wiped out 1/4 of the population and all of the schools, government, and medical facilities 30 years ago.He shared with me many of the kids stories: Debra has special needs, she is 5 years old and neither walks , talks, or is capable of doing anything on her own. Her mother was a prostitute and drank heavily while pregnant. After her baby was born, she left Debra with her aged grandmother, who was so poor she had nothing to feed Debra. She survived almost entirely on water her first 3 years of her life. Paul is three years old, he was abandoned on the roadside left to die at one month, a stranger saw him and called Rithy. Many of the other children were found starving, sleeping on the streets of the city abandoned by their families or orphaned by poverty.
He then told me that after Sunday morning, they run out of rice, which means they run out of food. Normally, the children eat rice for all three meals because its all they can afford. 1 bag of rice costs $30 and feeds the children and staff for 7 meals. While World Race teams are visiting, they can afford to buy both vegetables and meat to supplement the meals off of our food budget, but normally it is only rice that sustains these children. For $40 a day a balanced meal of rice, meat, vegetables, and fruits can be provided to the entire orphanage.
Currently a Korean Missionary is donating money to pay for the rent, but that doesn't include the bill for electricity or running water. Another woman donates toiletries once a month, but it is normally only enough to last them 2 weeks.
Rithy dreams of opening an International Bank account so that he can receive donations from abroad, but the international banks require $500 deposit to open the account. He said that anytime he has had that much money he has had to use it for the children's food.
So we are asking for your help because in 3 days the precious kids that we have grown to love over the past week.. don't have any more food on their table. And that is not ok, no child should ever have to go hungry. Our two teams are trying to set up long term sponsorship for the children and orphanage, but the need right now is too immediate for that. We set up a fund me account, that we can access while we are here to purchase food immediately.
Please join Team Cool Running and The Sheila's in prayer and financially as we fight to feed and serve the children that we have the privilege to hold, love, and share life with this month. We will send updates when we have a more long term solution and sponsorship program. Thank you for caring!!
here is the website to link
http://www.gofundme.com/2am8s4
