Hope remains for ailing Cambodian toddler [-Let's hope Socheat will be able to get her much needed surgery!]

3-year-old Socheat at her arrival in the US (Photo: Long Beach Press Telegram)

03/05/2010
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram

LONG BEACH - Unwilling to give up just yet on the future of a young patient, representatives from a local nonprofit are hoping a period of rest and recuperation will make the young girl healthy enough for surgery.

Four days after Socheat Nha, brought to the United States for life-altering heart surgery, was turned away from a Las Vegas Hospital over fears she would not survive the operation, the 3-year-old was seen by the cardiologist in San Diego who initially examined the girl in Cambodia.

Dr. Paul Grossfeld from Rady Children's Hospital examined Nha for the first time since he saw her in Siem Reap.

In an e-mail, Grossfeld described what he learned. "We performed an echocardiogram today, and found that although, as expected, the cardiac anatomy was exactly the same as what we saw three months ago in Cambodia, there has been a dramatic change in her physiology. We found today evidence that the pressures in her lung arteries have increased significantly from the time I evaluated her in December in Cambodia."

Socheat suffered a bout with pneumonia and other respiratory ailments since then which have affected her lungs. What the future holds is uncertain.

"Because of this unexpected change, her prognosis is guarded. Right now she would not be a good candidate for surgery, which could do more harm than good. Time will determine whether her current condition is reversible," Grossfeld wrote. "We are hoping that the elevated pressures in her lung arteries will return to the lower levels that we saw in December."

Socheat will return to be examined again in a month-and-a-half, when she will be re-evaluated.

Peter Chhun, founder of nonprofit Hearts Without Boundaries, was clinging to the hope that the girl will recover enough for surgery to be successful.

Socheat suffers from a congenital heart defect that has left her with two holes in her heart. The condition causes high pressure in her lungs from oxygenated blood flowing back into the lungs rather than to the rest of the body. The long-term effect of the ailment is shortened life expectancy and increasing fatigue, breathing difficulty and cyanosis, or turning blue.

Socheat, the daughter of a rice farmer in Southern Cambodia, is the third child Hearts Without Boundaries brought to the U.S. for open heart surgery not readily available in their home country.

The first two, Davik Teng, now 11, and Soksamnang Vy, 1, had successful surgeries and are living normal, active lives.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

Announcing Khmersocializers.com

KhmerSocializers.com Is Now Up And Running

Khmersocializers.com is a fun way of connecting, and a fun way to help those needy Cambodian children.

Stanton, CA (PRWEB) May 9, 2009 -- The Khmer Socializers website (http://khmersocializers.com) has announced that it is up and running. People from across the globe are invited to come join this dynamic and ever growing online community which is predominantly made up of Khmers -- the children of mighty Angkorian Empire.

KhmerSocializers.com was conceived because the administrator, Mr. Sojean Peou, desires to help those children in Cambodia who are currently collecting cans, bottles and plastic at dump sites as a means of survival. He was one of those kids.

"Some of the funds generated from KhmerSocializers.com will go to organizations that are dedicated to help those children, and we are proud of our members for helping us to achieve this goal," says Peou.

There are many great reasons to join this dynamic online community. This website provides all the latest news from Cambodia, Asia, and the planet. There are lovely, interesting, and friendly people to meet and talk to through the site's e-mail and Instant Messenger features. There is a forum that already has over 80 different topics, ranging from Khmer culture to people's tastes in music to how to raise self-esteem to "yummy food". Photo albums and videos can be posted and shared. A member can start a blog, publish an article, join a group, and Digg the great stuff found at Khmer Socializers.

But, maybe one of the very best reasons to visit the website is the virtual koi fish pond. Yes, this fish pond is always in motion. A member can use a mouse to feed the fish virtual food. They're insatiable, so they'll always swim right to it! Koi ponds are symbols of good fortune and believed to bring good luck.

The Khmer Socializers website (http://khmersocializers.com) is a fun way of connecting, and a fun way to help those needy Cambodian children.

Vineyard's generosity reaches a Cambodian school

At center, from left, Vineyard School administrator Chum Rathneary, Justin LaVigne, and Todd Alexander pose with students for a class photo. The school athletic director is to the right of Mr. Alexander. Photos courtesy of Todd Alexander.
Todd Alexander, right, and Roma Chhon, left, help Vineyard School administrator Chum Rathneary and students put books donated by Islanders on the library shelves.

March 27, 2008
By Janet Hefler
The Martha's Vineyard Times (Massachusetts, USA)

The Vineyard School in the Siem Reap region of Cambodia now has library shelves filled with books, supplies for students and teachers, access to the Internet, and a new computer teacher, thanks to the generosity of the Island community and the friends and family of Oak Bluffs harbormaster Todd Alexander.

Mr. Alexander recently returned from a 10-day trip to visit the school, built in 2005 with funds raised by him and his wife Karen Gelinas. In an article in The Times last month, Mr. Alexander made an appeal to the community for donations of books and money for the school. Collection boxes were set up at the Oak Bluffs School, West Tisbury School, the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School, ArtCliff Diner, and Mocha Mott's in Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs.

Before leaving for Cambodia on Feb. 23, Mr. Alexander said the publicity had resulted in an outpouring of donations, with enough books to fill seven boxes and about $5,000. Three laptop computers also were donated.

In a follow-up call on his return home, Mr. Alexander said he is very grateful to everyone that contributed, and to the many people who sent kind messages to him through the reader response feature on The Times website. He had a plaque inscribed with the names of the people who donated money, which he left at the school.

Mr. Alexander deemed the trip a success. Since his son is too young to travel so far, his wife stayed home to care for him, and Mr. Alexander's friend Justin LaVigne of Edgartown went on the trip with him.

"We got everything there, no problem," Mr. Alexander said. The two men each checked two boxes of books as luggage and used backpacks to carry their belongings on their flight.

Richard and Toni Cohen of West Tisbury, who had planned a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam around the time of Mr. Alexander's trip, offered to take two boxes of books and deliver them to the school. That left only one box that Mr. Alexander had to pay to check as extra luggage, which was still cheaper than shipping it.

When he arrived at the school, Mr. Alexander said he was relieved to see that there actually is a library, although many shelves were bare. The students know all about Harry Potter, though, he said.

Mr. Alexander spent monetary donations he received on dictionaries, reference books, a globe, and wall art, as well as notebooks, pens, and other supplies for students and teachers, which he purchased in Cambodia, since American dollars have more buying power there.

With almost 600 students attending the five-classroom school, desks are in short supply. Mr. Alexander and Mr. LaVigne visited the man who made the school's original desks, who lives a few miles away, and ordered 33 desks from him at a cost of $1,000.

Mr. Alexander also ordered a low-wattage computer through AAfC, which is compatible with the school's solar power, and set up a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Internet system. "There also was enough money to pay for a computer teacher for two years, to teach all the kids about it," he added.

His return visit to the school also gave Mr. Alexander the opportunity to spend some time with Roma Chhon, the young woman who provided the inspiration for building it. He and his wife met her in 2003 when she was 14, selling postcards and books outside Angkor Wat, a Buddhist Temple. When they learned Roma had dropped out of school because she had to work to help support her family, they offered to pay for her education.

After the couple returned home, they found out about the American Assistance for Cambodia's (AAfC) Rural Schools Project. They raised $13,000 through donations from friends, family, and the Island community, which the AAfC used to build the Vineyard School with matching funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

Although Roma visited the Island a few summers ago, Mr. Alexander said it has become very difficult since then to arrange another visit. She stays in touch via email, however.

Roma acted as an interpreter for Mr. Alexander and Mr. LaVigne during their stay in Cambodia. Now 19, she wants to focus on improving her English and attends the English School, for which Mr. Alexander and his wife continue to pay. "We're hoping she will be able to teach someday," he said.

Before going back to school last year, Roma's English-speaking skills landed her a job working for a hotel as a hostess.

"I saw her life before, and I saw it this time, and it was drastically different," Mr. Alexander said. "I really wasn't expecting that. Her family has a pump at their house now where they can get water, instead of having to go a couple of kilometers away for it, just to cook or do laundry. She's just much happier."

Mr. LaVigne became friends with Mr. Alexander while working at Mocha Mott's in Oak Bluffs several years ago and met Roma when she visited the Island.

"Todd and I had so many conversations about what he had done with the school over the years, and when the opportunity came up to go with him to see it in person, I was eager to experience it as well," he said.

The trip to Cambodia turned out to be a life-changing experience, Mr. LaVigne said. He especially was impressed by the children's obvious desire to be in school and their gratitude for an education. Mr. LaVigne said his visit to the school inspired him so much that he wants to start raising money to build another one, this time in a more rural area.

Although he already is busy starting a new business as a landscaper specializing in garden design and maintenance, Mr. LaVigne said he doesn't consider the fundraising an overwhelming hurdle.

Mr. Alexander has offered to help, although he said he is happy to let Mr. LaVigne take the lead. "To me, that's much more exciting, if you can get one more person down the line to build a school somewhere," he said.