Chantha is a single mother, who has been struggling with long term health issues, which has become a barrier to financial independence. Her sister, Chanthou, reached out to CYS to provide Chantha with a chicken coop. Through your support, Chantha is now a small business owner, and can support herself and her daughter, Ani.
Chantha’s sister, Chanthou, wrote the following letter, giving some insight into Chantha’s past and describing the impact this donation has made on their family:
My dear Bro Laor („good brother“),
Dear supporters,
I would like to thank you all so much for helping Chantha!
But first, I would like to tell you a little bit about Chantha’s story.
Chantha is my older sister. She is 49 years old.
When she was a child she only went to school for four years. This is the reason why she can hardly read and write Khmer at all. My family was so incredibly poor, which is why they only allowed the youngest child in the family – which was me – to go to school. Chantha had to stay at home and help the rest of my family with work. Back then, we used to sell Khmer noodles and tried to survive on the little money that we made.
In 2005, when she was 36 years old, she got married and had a daughter, Ani. Unfortunately, after having a baby, Chantha started getting very sick. A doctor in Takeo took an X-Ray and told us that she suffered from severe cardiac insufficiency. Throughout the following years, she was in a lot of pain and always needed medicine. Sadly, her husband passed in 2008. Following his death, Chantha had to sell her property in order to afford food for her daughter and herself and more medicine.
In 2009, I took my sister and my niece Ani in with me. I was fortunate enough to have a stable job and I always tried my best to support both of them as much as I could.
But Chantha’s condition kept getting worse and worse. Eventually, in 2019, a doctor in Phnom Penh told us that she urgently needed a new heart valve. However, cardiac valve surgery is incredibly expensive. I sold my farm animals, my jewelry, and more, desperately trying to get as much money as I could in order to afford the life-saving surgery for my sister. But it wasn’t enough. That’s why I had to ask Julian for help, and he and many of his friends supported us by paying for this surgery.
After the surgery and many months of follow-up appointments, Chantha slowly started getting better and better. Now – almost 2 years after her cardiac surgery – she is feeling great and is the strongest she has been in years. I am very happy for her and my niece.
Now Chantha is strong enough to work in my house a little bit.
This is the reason why I requested Thomlang – Cambodian Youth Support for some support to build a chicken coop and buy some chickens for Chantha.
We bought 5 hens, and now Chantha already has 23 chickens. When she gets a lot of healthy chicks, she can regularly sell them and earn some money from that.
I am hoping that Chantha gets more independent with her chicken business. Then, my 14-year-old niece Ani will directly benefit from that as well. Ani used to worry about her mother’s well-being a lot, but now she can focus on school and on studying.
Thank you so much for still being by our side after so many years, Bro Laor,
and thank you to anyone who supports this NGO!
I wish you all the best,
Yours,
Chanthou
CYS believes that investing in the development of Cambodian youth means uplifting the other people in their lives as well. Now, Ani can focus more on her schoolwork, and Chanthou can focus on progressing her career with the responsibility and stress of caring for a sick family member alleviated.
