Improve The Lives of Babies In Rural Cambodia

Hello! My name is Anita, and I'm a current pre-med student at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN). I am also a UMN Medical School Candidate (or a BA/MD Scholar to be precise). I started this fundraiser to help save premature babies that have a high likelihood of mortality through caffeine IV supplies and human milk fortifiers. This would be at Chenla Children's Hospital, which is a nonprofit hospital located in rural Kratie, Cambodia.

Here's my back story on how it all began: I'm Cambodian-American. I also grew up with relatives and parents who immigrated from Cambodia. They always told me stories about their experiences, both the good and bad ones. However, even though I traveled to Cambodia multiple times when I was younger, I don't remember too much of it. I still partake in my culture, understand the majority of the Cambodian (Khmer) language, and speak basic phrases, but I cannot read or write. I wanted to preserve the language so I tried learning it before, but the whole process became physically and mentally challenging for me as someone who grew up in Minnesota their entire life. I felt guilty for being disconnected from my Cambodian heritage. I also felt bad about myself when a Cambodian local questioned how terrible my Khmer was (without even knowing that I grew up in America).

Despite that, I traveled back to Cambodia in 2018, continued to listen to my relatives' stories, and researched the country's history. Even though Cambodia has great historical monuments, people, and culture, there are negative sides to it. Malnutrition, respiratory infections, and insufficient maternity care are really prevalent, especially in rural Cambodia. I also spent a few years researching and reading stories about the Khmer Rouge, which was an awful genocide that occurred from 1975-1979. After hearing this, I knew that I wanted to do something about it. Sure, there are limits on what I can do as a student, but I still wanted to help out those who do not have access to proper health care as well as connect with my roots. I was so passionate about figuring this out. I spent months researching and brainstorming ideas. When I finally found out what to do, I was so excited that I stayed up all night researching the organization and even telling my mom about it at 6 am right before she had to go to work.

I got in contact with the doctors over at Chenla and here, at the UMN. Over at Chenla, premature apnea is very common. Premature apnea is when premature babies stop breathing for more than 20 seconds. Most of the time this occurs during their sleep. Caffeine therapy would be a good treatment method to cure this, however, because the hospital is a non-profit, the Cambodian government doesn't pay for the caffeine IV supplies. They have to pay out of pocket in the U.S. Another big issue at Chenla is ensuring that every baby has enough calories to grow. Most of their calories are used up from their breathing and growing. Breast milk is effective for ensuring proper nutritional intake, however, it could be improved by human milk fortifiers (which are nutritional supplements you can add to breast milk to increase their calorie content for better growth and development). Luckily, a UMN pediatrics professor was able to connect me with the costs of the caffeine IV supplies. She has sent these supplies over to Chenla before and is highly trusted in the UMN medical community.

It would cost about $1,000 for 90 vials of caffeine oral and IV supplies and an additional $500 for the human milk fortifiers. Any leftover donations will be spent on more IV supplies/human milk fortifiers, and/or sent over to Chenla Children's Hospital.

I'm still figuring things out along the way, but we can unite to create a huge impact! I am extremely grateful for every single donation, even if it's a small amount. Every donation counts and will contribute significantly towards improving the lives of premature babies. I attached a link to Chenla's website if you'd like to learn more too! Again, thank you so much for supporting this mission. I really appreciate it!

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UPDATED JULY 2024:

I was fortunate and grateful enough to have visited Chenla Children’s Hospital during my trip to Cambodia from May to late June of 2024, and it meant so much to see it all come together. I honestly did not believe in myself that it would have gotten far, so it surprised me when I realized that all the money fundraised so far was enough to cover 3 NICU wards with caffeine and oral IV supplies for about a year! That’s just so insane to even think about! Even though I was not able to fundraise for the human milk fortifiers, I am proud that we could fundraise enough to cover the caffeine and oral IV supplies. Again, I want to thank everyone who has donated at the bottom of my heart. Not only has this helped so many premature babies, but it also gave me an opportunity to serve my country in the way that I could as a college student. Being able to reconnect with my culture and understand what diseases are prevalent in Cambodia are also really interesting as well. I couldn’t have been more grateful.

I’m still opening this GoFundMe up, but as donations come through, I will keep transferring them over to Chenla. I would hope to use the future donations towards funding human milk fortifiers and seeing what kind of impact it’ll leave on the patients. I will try my absolute best to help out as much as I can. Thank you so much everyone and please reach out if you have any questions or would like me to talk about anything. <3