A little over a year ago, we met a family near Blum. The father had abandoned them, leaving mum, a street sex worker, to try to keep herself and her 9-month old baby alive.
She was far behind on rent and her baby was malnourished because she’d been stretching her son’s milk (sex workers here often wean their babies very early, expensive and often unsafe in the slums) and was reduced to sugared water.
We got the baby into our Baby Bellies program with extra milk, and helped his mother find a safer stable job at a factory. With free childcare from our foster care program while she was working, she could manage.
She met someone and became pregnant again. Things were looking up.
However, her pregnancy became complicated and she started getting sicker and sicker. Our community nurse took her for frequent health checks at the nearby clinic, and last month as she neared her eighth month, she was admitted urgently into the hospital.
Surgery saved her life, but her unborn child died before being born.
Our nurse is still visiting with her as she recovers at the hospital, as much for emotional support as checking up on her. Her older boy is with us during this crisis, and we will give her the support she needs after this tragedy.
Please spare a thought for her, her little son and the daughter she lost.
Make Thida a teacher
Send Kosal to school!