Help for O'Char Children to be supervised by Sin Rozeth

Mrs. Mu Sochua's response to donor for poor O'Char students 

Dear Savy,

O'Char is a commune in the city of Battambang. Please see Rozeth stories posted on my blog for more info. She is very dedicated and will surely look after the boy and other families who are in her constituency.

You are the first generous contributor.

With sincere thanks,

Sochua

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Currency: U.S. Dollars

Purpose:Mu Sochua Justice Fund

Contributor: Savy K Hang

Message: To Ms Sochua, This $50.00 is to help Sochea and his family to get foods, school, and clothes. Please use this fund for the education of O'Char's children through Ms Mu Sochua. Can someone tell me where O'Char is? In what province?

Thanks, Savy Kennedy Hang, Bridgewater, MASS, USA 02324

http://khmerization.blogspot.com/2012/07/help-for-ochar-children-to-be.html#links

Dear Friends and Colleagues, 

It is with great apprehension that I am sending this email to you for the simple reason that I am about to break my own cardinal rule of never asking anyone for financial help. 

What leads me to this situation is that a couple of weeks ago, a foreigner, Mari Haraldsson, followed Rozeth, a newly elected SRP commune councilor in O’Char, and posted a few photos of her with a poor family in her commune. Two photos that attracted my attention are the following:

Miss Rozeth and a man with his children--all of whom are unable to attend school due to poverty.

In the caption provided with the second photo, Mari wrote: “A 13 year old handicapped boy who is extremely positive and vibrant. Rozeth has promised to do her best to help these children attend school.”

After seeing the sparks in the handicapped boy’s eyes, I decided to contact to Rozeth to ask her about the boy’s needs.

A few days later, Rozeth sent me back a reply providing quite a few details about this boy, Sochea. His family has 9 children, five older children left home to find work and only the four youngest are still home. Chea, the father, cannot work anymore after injuring his lower back from lifting heavy weights as a laborer.

It is often said that poverty and misery often goes hand in hand: in this family’s case, not only are they poor, they have a lot of children, the father is unable to work and he is also addicted to drinking. So the entire family depends solely on Sochea’s mother that is why the childen cannot attend school as they should have.

Rozeth also informed me that Sochea’s education cost is about $15 per month (i.e. about 50 cents per day), most likely to pay the bribe for the underpaid teacher. In addition, he also needs to spend about $15 in school uniforms, books and school supplies.

When I asked Rozeth about Sochea’s health condition, Rozeth informed me that the family told her that, as a child, he came down with high fever one day, because they are too poor, his family did not pay much attention to his needs until he lost his ability to walk. From looking at Sochea’s picture and from little I know about medicine, his case seems to be a blaring case of polio which could have been easily prevented by simple vaccination. I think that not everybody in Srok Khmer is aware of this illness, that is why they are not able to name Sochea’s case properly. Nevertheless, Rozeth told me that she had contacted an organization that agreed to provide a wheelchair for Sochea soon. For now, a neighbor whose elderly mother passed away a few years earlier let Sochea used her wheelchair as you can see in the photo below:

 

Upon learning all the facts above, I sent back an email to Rozeth to tell her that I can secure the funding for Sochea’s schooling for the upcoming year. However, due to his father’s condition, I also asked her if she would be willing to manage the fund for the boy to which she agreed.

Dear Friends and Colleagues, while I am able to provide help for Sochea, his family also counts two other children who are of schooling age: his younger sister – whom I am told that she is 8-year-old, yet looks more like a 5 or 6-year-old instead – and his younger brother who is now 6. Just like Sochea, each child needs about $150 per year for school bribery fees and about $15 per year for school uniforms and supplies. This is why I am trying to approach any of you to see if you can help provide for these two children so that they may attend school – even though we know full well that education is sub-standard in Srok Khmer.

My goal here is in fact two folds: one if to request for the help, but more importantly to put Rozeth directly in contact with you so that she can provide updates from the family, should you be interested in finding out more about them. Furthermore, because these children will need to attend school for several more years to come, my idea is that, if you can, please help contribute $5, $10 for this family, but no more than $30. Why the limit? Quite simply because Rozeth may have to come back to you each year for help again. Altogether, I am confident that we could pool enough fund to send these children to school.

So now you understand why I have to ply my cardinal rule for this good cause. In any case, if you can help, please send your contribution to Mrs. Mu Sochua website ( http://sochua.wordpress.com/donate/ ) and please inform her that the fund is geared for the education of O’Char’s children, Mrs. Mu Sochua agreed to turn over the funds raised to Rozeth.

In closing, I would like to thank you for taking the time to hear this plea for help. Whether you can financially help or not is not the main issue here, the main point is to see if you can or are willing to act as Rozeth’s contact points in the future. If you can, please drop her a note (she is a recipient of this email also). She may not respond to you right away, but please do have patience because, from what I understand, she has to take care of 6 villages and she lives in rather rural areas where Internet access is not easily available. Furthermore, she is not very fluent in English either. She mentioned to me that she is still taking English classes at a local pagoda. So far, my correspondence with her has been in Khmer exclusively, so preferably, she would like to read your emails in Khmer Unicode.

With my sincere thanks,

Heng Soy