On the 15th Dec 2009 CHOICE was told about a homeless, deaf, pregnant girl and maybe HIV+ in Phnom Penh. We located the girl about a week before Xmas, and with her permission we had a blood test done which confirmed she was HIV+. She could neither read nor write, it was difficult for us to communicate. CHOICE supplied her with some clothes and food and small money.

We contacted Charles from DDP (Deaf Development Programme) with his help we determined that the girl was 25, and abandoned by the father of the baby, a foreigner, when he found out the girl was pregnant. She did not want to keep her baby. The staff from DDP were excellent and they intend to educate her with job skills as well as teach her proper sign language DDP engaged the help of a related Maryknoll Group PMTCT (Preventing Mother To Child Transmission).

They provided medical help for the girl as well as an Ultra-sound and would help the baby after birth as well. LIA Orphanage offered to take the baby if need be. Unexpectedly we found out that a 2.5kg baby girl was born on Monday 11th Jan. by cesarean, and the Mother has changed her mind now and will keep the lovely baby girl, as well the grandparents have come forward and with a combined effort we are all trying to help out. Now we are waiting to see if the medicine has prevented the baby from contracting the HIV and of course the baby is not being breast fed.

We will keep you up to date on this story. Update, unfortunately we have lost contact with the family, they are not using the same phone number, we can only hope that all is well.

The baby  pictured here is just 4 days old.