A mother's relief
Cambodian teen reunites with kin after medical work in Hawaii
STORY SUMMARY >>
A 15-year-old Cambodian girl's life was forever changed by the year
she spent in Hawaii.
Sithan Leam walked for the first time after surgery and physical
therapy last year at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Honolulu.
She suffered a severe burn as an infant, and when the wound healed,
scar tissue fused her foot and calf to her thigh. Star-Bulletin
readers helped raise money to bring Sithan to Honolulu for treatment.
She returned to Cambodia for an emotional reunion with her mother in
the capital, Phnom Penh. But instead of returning to her family and
the rural village with no electricity or running water where she grew
up, Sithan is starting on a long road to an education and a better
life.
Re****ter Craig Gima traveled to Sithan's village of Anglong Thor in
2006 to first tell her story, and he returned to Cambodia in January
to cover Sithan's journey home.
http://starbulletin.com/2008/03/24/news/story01.html
