Hi, I'm actually not a resident of Siem Reap at the moment, but I wanted to get in touch with the Siem Reap expat community.
I'm an American who's in South East Asia for a year or two and just happened to visit Siem Reap. While visiting Banteay Srei temple, I saw a 13-year-old girl there who had fallen into a fire when she was just a 1 year old baby. Her face has been disfigured tremendously and she cannot even speak other than making some noises. But I imagine her social isolation is the most painful as the crowds were recoiling from her and even begging is not something she can depend on. I know we are used to seeing a lot of suffering in this part of the world, but her case is truly egregious and my heart goes out to her.
I saw online that facial reconstructions are being done in the West for victims of burns and acid attacks. There even seems to be an organization in the US (and maybe similar in other countries too) called the Children's Burn Foundation that can help with funding for the surgery, including for foreign children (below is a link about how a girl from Pakistan was helped).
http://memolition.com/2015/01/11/burn-v … struction/http://childburn.org/
I was hoping to collect a little bit of information about her before trying to approach these orgs. Simple things like her whether she's mentally OK ( often, disfigurement is really hard on mental health, but chances of rehabilitation are higher if the person is mentally OK), whether she's getting any treatment at all, does she have parents and other family. If any attempts in surgery have been made previously here, what happened.
I was hoping to take a tuk-tuk out there ( she can always be found at the Banteay Srei checkpoint) and ask her parents/guardians a few questions to gather this information. Is there anyone with a knowledge of Khmer (and either English or Spanish so we can talk ) who can accompany me there and help translate? If someone is available in the next 3 days, I would be glad to ditch my other Angkor plans and try to get the information necessary.
I'd be grateful for this help. Your nationality (and mine) do not matter. Just some ability to speak Khmer.
Regards,
Thomas