When Tivea first came to Mother’s Heart in June of this year, she was desperate to find a hope for the future.
She was single, pregnant, and alone without a stable income.
She shares her feelings, “What do I do with myself? I am sad because I have no solutions from my family or friends. I want to keep my baby, but I have no money.”
Tivea heard about Mother’s Heart from a friend in the community. “I was scared to call, but I wanted to keep my baby”. Tivea did contact Mother’s Heart, and immediately we were able to provide her crisis pregnancy counseling.
Tivea is now receiving access to free pre-natal care along with housing and food assistance from Mother’s Heart. We asked Tivea how she feels now. Smiling she says, “I have solutions now. The staff at Mother’s Heart is taking me to the medical clinic for my pregnancy and they are helping me to keep my baby. Everything is good now and I’m happy and feel good about everything!”
Tivea is also excited about her future. She has recently begun vocational training at a local business. She continues to share “I enjoy learning how to work at a beauty salon shop, and working at a place where there are a lot of girls. I feel relaxed now and have solutions for my future!”
Mother’s Heart provides the women in our program with access to free vocational training of their choice which long term will help them obtain higher paying jobs. MH has partnership agreements with vocational training centers and fair trade organizations throughout Phnom Penh which allows the women in our program with many choices such as sewing, hospitality, cooking, and micro-business. (For the purposes of client confidentiality, client names & facial photographs are not used)
Sustainability is one of the main goals at Mother’s Heart when it comes to helping the women in our program become financially independent in their communities. Most of the women at Mother’s Heart enter our program with little or no specialized skills that, along with being a single mother, create an enormous hardship financially.
Once the women enter our program, we provide them access to either job placement or vocational training of their choice such as cooking, hospitality training, and sewing from fair trade organizations throughout Phnom Penh. Before the training, the majority of the women only have the capacity to earn about $50-70 per month. After vocational training, their incomes increase substantially to $100-$130 per month.
Several months ago we had a creative and unusual request by one of the women in our program. Along with the help of her mother, she wanted to start her own micro enterprise business. Her idea was to sell coffee just outside a factory close to her home. We were impressed with her idea as well as her recognition to select a location that would provide her with the most customer traffic.
The staff at Mother’s Heart shared in her and her mother’s vision by purchasing a coffee cart as well as the start up supplies necessary to allow them to start their business. It has been both fun and exciting to partner with this family in raising their income level. Micro enterprise is widely recognized as a powerful tool to help the very poor but business-minded, throughout the world to rise above poverty. For as little as $200, we were able to make an incredible investment into the lives of this family!
Several months ago one of the mothers in our program gave birth to an infant with a life threatening disability. Without surgery, we were told by the doctors that he would not survive. Even with surgical intervention, according to the surgeon, he would only have a 10% chance to survive the surgery. Against all odds, Mother’s Heart staff began praying immediately for a miracle.
Not only did he survive the surgery, but his recovery was beyond everyone’s expectations. He had no complications during surgery, his recovery was quick, and he did not develop any post-surgical complications. He is an amazing testimony to our staff and we are so thankful.
The mother still has a long road ahead in caring for a child with both physical and mental special needs. We are always surprised, however, by the courage and strength of the women in our program as well as the hard choices they face daily. It is a privilege to support and partner with them
Mom has recently begun vocational skills training which will increase her opportunity to gain access to a higher paying job. The baby is attending Mother’s Heart’s daycare (Little Lambs) and is thriving well in the program. This month, an occupational therapist from Australia dedicated her week to come to Cambodia in order to educate the daycare staff and the mom on physical training exercises for the baby to help improve his mobility.
We want to say a special thanks as well to ACCIR(Australian Christian Churches International Relief) for the “One Day Funds” campaign which funded this life saving surgery!
