Help Rebuild Communities Devastated by Poverty, HIV/AIDS, Corruption and the Trauma of Genocide
Sina lost both parents to HIV/AIDS. We found her alone by her mother’s deathbed in a hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia years ago. Sina grew up in our foster home. We found her extended family about 3 years ago. Her mother had been estranged from them due to HIV/AIDS.
Sina left our foster home to be with her aunt’s family. The family is very poor so we continue to support Sina, including her education and living expenses. We also had a toilet built for the family as they had been using the forest. Today we are drilling a well as the neighborhood water source had dried up.
Sina is now in 8th grade. She is often asked to help her family work in the banana and cassava farms in lieu of school. We have asked the family to keep her in school as we continue to support her.
Your gift will help support Sina and many other orphans around the world!
“In places like Cambodia there are very limited social services;
we do what we can and leave the rest to God.”
— Sister Len Montiel, M.M.
Learning to Live While Earning a Living
A few years ago Los Mari, who is HIV positive, became a candidate for our Maryknoll program. She was a poor and homeless mother of four. Since then, the program has helped her purchase a houseboat which she just sold for a smaller, but newer one. She also has become a seamstress with the help of the program.
Los Mari and her husband are now able to make a living and support their three children. They have also been able to buy a piece of land on which to build a house. Sadly, Los Mari’s 13 year old daughter has since died from HIV.
Sister Len Montiel is the director of the Maryknoll HIV/AIDS Response Program in Cambodia. Sister Len says, “We consider the mental as well as the physical state of our clients. We help them move from being physically and mentally wounded to being happy, healthy people who believe they have a future. We work with them to build their inner strength and to learn to value themselves again.”
This program cares for more than 600 adults living with AIDS, as well as more than 700 orphans and vulnerable children in Phnom Penh annually. The program ensures that patients maintain good levels of health and social support, and that children receive food, education, medical and psychosocial support they need.
What can you do?
Donate now! Your gift will enable Missioners such as Sister Len to help the families and children affected by poverty, HIV/AIDS, and genocide. Your gift is more than a donation; you will help the families of this community and many others in our Missions throughout the world.