Provide Pandemic Relief For 500 Cambodian Families

Since February, Cambodia has been hit by a serious Covid-19 outbreak. The number of patients in Phnom Penh quickly surpassed existing treatment facilities. A city-wide lockdown began April 14. During the lockdown, families were ordered to stay at home, which means that they couldn’t work. Poor families have been greatly affected, because they usually only make enough money to buy enough food for each day. They do not have any savings or food stockpile as a buffer. Middle-income families have also been affected. Many businesses have cut salaries or closed completely. Usually, people would rely on their family to help, but everyone is experiencing the same crisis.

The same has been true for the Mission Dove Cambodia students and volunteer teachers at the Phnom Penh YES IC Learning Center. Most of them are from families that needed immediate assistance. Dove staff contacted students to determine their family situation and prioritized those who had lost income, had many family members and/or worked at factories. Even though the city-wide lockdown was lifted May 5th, some areas of the city still have restrictions. Some factories have reopened, but only 50% of their workforce is allowed.

With your generosity, care packages have been distributed to 70 families that included 10kg of rice, dried fish, vegetables, eggs, dried noodles and other staples. To keep the distribution as safe as possible, we spread their visits to the Dove office over two days, April 27^th and May 5^th. One family in one of the most affected areas of the city received two packages. The home internet upgrade for two Dove staff has enabled them to facilitate three support groups for 26 total students during this outbreak. Six Dove volunteer English teachers have continued online teacher training and received stipends. 

Interview with Konika* on May 5th

My name is Konika. I’m 29 years old. I live in a small rental house in the Boeung Tumpun area of Phnom Penh with my parents and my three children. I am also 7 months pregnant. I used to work in a factory and my husband is a construction worker. Unfortunately, my husband and I had an argument recently and he has left us.

Now, because of the lockdown and my pregnancy, I can no longer go to work. I have no income and can’t afford to buy food or pay for my medical bills or my children’s education. My parents are both very old, but they still work and now my family has become their burden. One of my brothers is a tuk tuk driver, and the other is a factory worker. Sometimes they will help us with food, but they can’t do very much because they are also trying to take care of their own families. Right now, neither of them has a job because roads and factories are closed. So, we have no income at all and are just trying to get enough food to survive. I’m so worried about when I have my baby and that I won’t have money to get care at a hospital or even afterwards. I can only hope that the COVID outbreak will be over soon so that my brothers and parents can go to work again. For now, I just want to say a thank you to Dove YES IC and the people who have been generous enough to give us food and other groceries. This relief package will help us hold on for just a bit longer.

*-Name changed for privacy.

In partnership with other groups, Dove has also provided care packages to families in a Chak Angre Leu neighborhood in Phnom Penh, where one of the Dove staff lives. We found this neighborhood hadn’t received any assistance yet. The staff talked with each family to understand their situation. Some work as garbage collectors or cleaners, while others are unemployed, elderly or widowed. On May 2nd, 40 families received packages, and the remaining 57 families on May 11th. We were happy that some of the Dove YESIC students volunteered to help with the second distribution.