Sister
Cam Banh: Working with women in crisis pregnancies
Sister Cam Banh, ACJ
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
Sister Cam Banh, a Handmaid of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
has been a herald of hope for many in Philadelphia over
the past eight years.
As a counselor and outreach coordinator for the Southwest
Philadelphia Family Service Center of Catholic Social Services,
Sister Cam has provided spiritual, material and emotional
assistance to countless people in the Vietnamese, Cambodian,
Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian and African American communities.
Recently, Sister Cam was recognized by Real Alternatives,
a nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania whose mission is
to provide life-affirming alternatives to abortion, for
her work with women in crisis pregnancies. She was presented
with the Counselor of the Year Award for her dedication
to such women.
In recent years, her work with women in crisis pregnancies
has grown greatly, she said. More and more women are coming
forward, seeking help because they have a language barrier,
are unemployed or don’t have health insurance, she
said.
Sister Cam, who is of Chinese and Vietnemese descent, readily
finds help for those entrusted to her care — whether
it is a women in crisis, an immigrant, or an elderly person.
One of the people she helped was a young Asian woman who
came to Sister Cam very frightened and depressed, thinking
about seeking an abortion, almost six years ago.
The young woman had been raped, was pregnant and felt there
was no other alternative to abortion, because the stigma
and shame of being pregnant outside of marriage as an Asian
woman was too much to bear, Sister Cam said.
“She didn’t want anyone to know about her tragedy,”
she said. “But I tried to console her and help her
see that there was an alternative to abortion.”
Sister Cam saw to meeting the young woman’s material
needs — finding her a maternity home, helping her
to extend her visa, and helping her get free prenatal care.
She also found the young woman a counselor to help her get
back her emotional health, and remained in close contact
with her to see to her spiritual needs.
With that support system in place, the woman decided to
give up her child for adoption, and Sister Cam worked with
Catholic Social Services’ adoption agency to find
the baby a good family.
“But she was not comfortable... she told me that she
didn’t want to give away her baby,” Sister Cam
said.
The young woman had been alone; with her family oceans away.
She feared what the future would bring, but Sister Cam’s
support helped her see that she did have choices. That gave
her the strength to keep her baby, Sister Cam said.
Sister Cam continued to keep in contact with the woman after
the birth of her child. “Now she is 5 years-old,”
she said. “They turned out well.”
Sister Cam knows from her years of social work that women
in crisis pregnancies need to be given real choices and
support — that too often women make decisions from
lack of information about the help and support that is available.
She is making a difference, one person at a time.
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith may be reached at
npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.
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