When San Marino resident Heather Connell met a 4-year-old orphan with cerebral palsy in Cambodia, he stole her heart and led her to dedicate her time and resources to help others like him.
She called the boy, named Sumnang, her “Cambodian son” and he became her inspiration for founding Safe Haven Medical Outreach—a medical nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting children with disabilities and complex medical needs in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Connell’s path to Cambodia originated from her career as a documentary filmmaker.
“I went to Cambodia for the first time in 2006,” Connell said. “I was actually starting pre-production on a documentary called ‘Small Voices.’ It was a documentary about the garbage dump and street children of Cambodia.”
Cambodia continues to struggle from the effects of when the Khmer Rouge ruling party killed between 1.7 and 2 million people, mostly educated adults, in order to create a classless society during its four-year reign beginning in 1975.
Throughout the years that Connell made the documentary she became very attached to the children of Cambodia.
“When the film was done, I didn’t feel right about simply disappearing out of their lives since I had been involved with them for such a long period of time,” Connell said. “I continued to go back to Cambodia to visit them and check in on them.”
She had been asked to speak at another nonprofit in Siem Reap on one of those trips in 2009 and decided to volunteer at the Sisters of Charity Orphanage in her free time. There, Connell met Sumnang.
“Sumnang had cerebral palsy, which was not something that the caretakers at the organization where he lived were aware of or even knew anything about,” she said. “I have two nieces who have CP and I recognized it right away. When I asked the nuns at the facility what kind of services were available to help improve his quality of life, they didn’t even know what was wrong with him.”
Connell said the nuns thought Sumnang was paralyzed, but he just had low muscle tone and never built up any body strength.
Sumnang’s mother died after childbirth and his father was not known. He and his twin brother were dropped off at the doorstep of the orphanage when they were 2 days old. An Australian woman adopted Sumnang’s twin brother.
“I basically asked the Mother Superior of the organization if I could take over Sumnang’s care,” Connell said. “After several months of going back and forth with them and assuring them that my intentions were good, they essentially allowed me to become Sumnang’s de facto parent in Cambodia and be responsible for his care.”
When Connell started looking for resources to improve Sumnang’s quality of life, she discovered that the resources were either non-existent in Cambodia or just extremely limited. She said those resources include things like nutritional intervention, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. Connell started to bring specialists in these areas into Cambodia to treat Sumnang and develop a care program for him.
“Essentially the concept for Safe Haven was born out of my desire to give Sumnang a better quality of life and provide him with the interventions that he needed to reach his personal level of independence and health,” she said. “It came strictly out of me meeting this child and wanting to give him a better quality of life.”
Sumnang passed away on Sept. 1, 2010 while he was being transported to the hospital. He suffered from a grand mal seizure a few hours after Connell had tucked him into bed. She happened to be in Siem Reap by chance, as she decided not to travel to another village because of a stomach bug.
“After Sumnang passed away, I gave up on Safe Haven for a little while because it was such a devastating thing to lose him,” Connell said, adding that she soon realized continuing the project would be the best way to help other children like Sumnang while honoring his memory. She said, “If something like Safe Haven Medical Outreach had existed sooner, Sumnang wouldn’t have died or he would have had a better quality of life, even if it was a short lifespan, because he would be able to get services that he needed.”
Connell funded Safe Haven completely out of her pocket for the first three years it existed. She said the early days of the nonprofit organization involved building trust with the chiefs and families within the villages. The roster of families in and around Siem Reap that Safe Haven helps is constantly changing, but it has a limit of 50 families because of its budget and the deep level of care it provides.
“We take a whole family approach,” Connell said. “Education is one of the key foundations of Safe Haven Medical Outreach. One of the reasons why it primarily is an outreach program and we work in the families’ homes is because we want to make the parents active participants in their child’s care. They learn how to care for their child. They learn physical therapy techniques and occupational therapy techniques. Our staff works with them to make sure that if the child has to take medications, that they understand what the medications are and how to give them. If the child has to go to the hospital for any reason, one of our staff is there to facilitate being an advocate for the child and for the parents so they understand what’s going on. By working with the families directly in their homes, it strengthens the family bond.”
She added that Safe Haven wants to hire, train and keep Cambodian personnel and continue to provide educational opportunities to build their skills while they are working for the nonprofit organization.
“Ultimately, we want the people who the families are working with to be people who share their language and their culture,” Connell said. “That’s really an important part of what we offer.”
She said she is amazed at how far the Cambodian children can progress when they have access to the right interventions.
Safe Haven has a budget of $65,000 a year and its annual report is available on its website at http://safehavenkhmer.org.
“One of the things that we’re really proud of at Safe Haven is that only 18 percent of our budget goes toward admin costs,” Connell said. “The rest of the money is all direct service to the children.”
The organization’s website has many opportunities to donate and a link to an Amazon.com Wish List. Monetary donations can be mailed to Safe Haven Medical Outreach, 1580 Bellwood Road, San Marino, CA 91108. Checks must be made out to ‘Safe Haven Medical Outreach.’
