The SHCH & Habitat for Humanity give
a new home to a struggling mom
The place that Chhorvy and her 16-year-old daughter Socheata called home was a tiny shack in a shanty town outside the city, shared by Chhorvy’s six siblings and their families.
The roof over their heads was a thin metal sheet, punctured with holes. During rainy season, which lasts nearly five months in Cambodia, rainwater poured into the house through the holes in the roof like a shower.
Their house was often flooded with up to two feet of water making it difficult to even sleep at night as the makeshift beds were so close to the ground.
But this year will be different for Chhorvy and Socheata. Thanks to a partnership between the SHCH and Habitat for Humanity Cambodia, the mother and daughter were selected to receive a new home.
Because of the partnership with Habitat for Humanity Cambodia, 80 SHCH patients with HIV- like Chhorvy- and their families will be provided with secure housing this year.
Chhorvy, one of 2,600 patients receiving life-saving anti-retroviral therapy for HIV at the Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE, was diagnosed with the disease in 2000. When she first arrived, she was so weak that her sister had to carry her. She contracted HIV from her husband who passed away that year.
“If there was no Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE, I would have died during these last ten years,” said Chhorvy.
As a single mom, Chhorvy regained her health and even a livelihood with the help of the SHCH Home Care Team which gives comprehensive community-based treatment to people living with HIV (PLHIV) by providing medication, counseling, and additional social and even economic support through micro-loans.
“The Home Care Team is so good,” said Chhorvy. “They train me about how to save money and to run a small business to support my family.”
Chhorvy and her daughter moved into their new house. They are doing well and excited to have not only a new home, but a new life.
“I feel my life is very difficult,” said Chhorvy, “but when the Home Care Team visited us and told us they would help us to get a house, I was so happy I cried.“
