Paan in trouble

Do you remember Paan ? The new little girl living at the center ? Well, we just came back from the doctor's, and her CD4 level is at 1% of what it should be. This places her in a very critical condition, the least little virus or infection could sweep her away in just days.

But that is just the "good" news.

What makes me sit at a keyboard to share with you something really difficult is that we will not be able to care for her. Not that we cannot give her medecine - we have money enough for that at the moment. Not that we have insufficient hygiene standards, or even housing capacities for her. Not that we don't have enough love for her to be happy, no, nothing of the sort.

Her father, a drunkard of the class that drinks the integrality of his wages to the point of having his brothers and sisters pay his house rent, cannot accept the blow of being dishonored, as he would be if Paan were to live at Home Hak. Because Home Hak is partly associated with Aids. Because in a surge of self-pride, he cannot imagine that other people could care more for his daughter than himself - we had found her on the ground when the rest of the family ate at the table, we had found her undernourished, wearing hags, playing not far from the stacks of empty beer bottles that whittle away her father's reason. Because her father receives 1000 baht a month for the care of his child from the government since her mother died, and 1000 baht less is that much less to drink.

Pi Tiou and Jin, Peo, Dara, all think she will die within two weeks, given the lack of care she receives at her "home". And we can do nothing but wait and hope the family unites itself to care for the child, or bring her to us that we could give this little life a chance.

On your side, dear reader, I can only ask you for your prayers. Thanks.