Provide Pandemic Relief For 500 Cambodian Families

Thank you to all of you who have supported Mission Dove Cambodia’s Covid Pandemic project! Dove is also grateful to GlobalGiving for a direct grant for Covid-19 relief in July. These gifts gave Dove staff more opportunities to bless their Cambodian neighbors during this challenging time.

On July 18^th, Mission Dove Cambodia staff partnered with Cambodia Care Center (CCC) organization to distribute care packages to 71 families in the Chbar Ampov area of Phnom Penh. One of the Dove staff who helped was Ms. Raeksmey, who grew up in this neighborhood and previously worked at the CCC school. Mr. Sun, who is a Dove leadership student, was one of the CCC staff who helped organize the distribution. Families in this neighborhood have found it difficult to make a living during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some collect recyclables, but the market for resale is much reduced.

It was also encouraging to see some of the Dove students, whose families have received care packages, volunteer to help with the distribution. Care packages included two 25 kg (100 lbs. total) bags of rice, 1.5kg of sausages, 30 eggs, and other cooking staples. For families that just own bicycles, Dove staff helped to deliver the heavy bags to their home by motor scooter.

After we ate lunch, Sun led us to visit two families. Both families live in shacks near the Bassac river. It’s jarring to see that just across the way is Koh Pich Island, where houses sell for over a million dollars. We listened to the story of one family. The mother, 35 years old, gave birth just 4 days before to her 6^th child. The baby was premature and still at the hospital, being taken care of by her older sister. She was afraid to see the baby and decided to come back home to take care of her other children. They lost their house when the riverbank fell into the river, due to sand dredging. For a while, they rented land to live on for $10 a month. The mother sold vegetables to earn money until Covid hit. Her husband is a drug addict. They have ended up squatting on a dead end by the river, using water from the river. One of the children attends the CCC primary school. A neighbor, who is a caretaker for a church nearby, gives them food from the church.

Sun shared with me that when he was young, his family’s house in Chbar Ampov would flood every year. So for part of the year, they would go to live in the local wat (temple complex) in a shack similar to the ones these families live in. As a child, he had to help his family collect recyclables to sell, so he was only able to finish 6^th grade. Then he had an opportunity to study English, and now works at CCC part-time and is also security staff for the city. He has a lot of compassion for these 2 families. Sun’s wife and child tested positive for Covid-19 a few months ago, but they recovered.

Now it is monsoon season in Cambodia. In September, Dove staff bought 4 tarps. Sun went with some Dove staff and several students from the YESIC Leadership Club to visit the families again. They helped to make the shacks more waterproof using the tarps and adding more wood and bamboo to the structures.

The Mission Dove Cambodia staff, and Sun and the other Dove students are all wounded healers. They are caring for others out of the pain and understanding brought by their own wounding.