The
orphaned daughter of a prostitute, Cosette has been left in the care
of a greedy, heartless family. Rescued by a Christian gentleman, Cosette
grows to be a godly young woman. This story of hope inspired our daughter
to name her Cosette Hope. "And now they
have her at the orphanage, Mom! You need to bring her home! We'll
help take care of her Mom, she really needs to be held and loved!"
We made a phone call to the orphanage director who told us that the
baby weighed only 3 pounds and had no sucking reflex. He said he would
be willing to let us take her in if his staff could get her stabilized
and asked us to call him the following week.
We spent the weekend praying for Cosette, asking the
Lord to sustain her. Monday morning we called the orphanage director.
He told us that Cosette had lost her fight for life over the weekend.
Though
our daughters saw her only once, and we not at all, we were saddened
by the loss of this seemingly meaningless little life. She managed to
touch our hearts, and we prayed that her short life was not lived in
vain.
Our contact with Cosette Hope initiated a strong, compelling
desire to somehow care for the children of Cambodia who had been orphaned
by and infected with HIV/AIDS. In the weeks following Cosette's death
we met the orphanage director and began talking with him about the possibility
of starting a home for such children. He encouraged us to pursue that
goal.
In
July 2005 our dream was realized as we opened the doors of Cosette's
Hope Children's Home (CHCH). Our first little residents were
a three year old girl who is HIV positive, and a 13 month old boy whose
parents died of HIV, though he himself is not infected.
Since starting Cosette's Hope Children's Home, we have
brought in a total of 19 children, all with amazing
background stories to why they were orphaned. We plan to post some of
the children's stories in the near future.
Our prayers have been answered...we believe that it is through CHCH
that Cosette's short life will have a lasting, even an eternal, impact
on these children in Cambodia.
You can help us meet the needs of these children by making a financial
contribution for their daily care and on-going medical needs. "Donate
Online" through a secure online server. You will receive
an annual statement for your tax records, and an email confirming your
online donation. Cambodian Outreach Project (COP) is an IRS recognized
non-profit 501(c)(3) Public Charity organization. All contributions
are tax-deductible in accordance with IRS code. (Please read our contribution
statement on our Donations page.)
OR: Contact Us through our
Donations
page.

Please join us and pray with us as we reach out and minister life to these little children.
Our teenaged daughters had just returned from visiting
an AIDS orphanage, and they burst into the kitchen, shaking and shaken
up. Breathlessly they recounted their visit. They had seen and held
an 8 day old little girl that was premature and HIV+. Her head was
the size of a tennis ball and her arms so tiny that they were able
to put one of their rings on the baby's wrist. Her mom, HIV+
and quite likely a prostitute, had given birth to her, jumped from
the delivery table and run out of the hospital.
Disturbed that her caregivers were calling her by the name of the
hospital where she had been born and abandoned, our girls had decided
she needed a real name. They tried a few, but none seemed to fit.
Then one of my daughters said, "Cosette...her name should be
Cosette." Some of her friends, visiting the orphanage with her,
asked why. Our daughter quickly recounted the story of the character
Cosette in Les Misérables.