Provide Pandemic Relief For 500 Cambodian Families

  Story from Kanika (name changed for privacy)." 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." She continues.

"Now, because of the lockdown (interview taken in May 2021) 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 enough money to get care at a hospital or even afterward. I can only hope that the COVID outbreak will be over soon so that my brothers and parents can go to work again. We are poor, fortunately, we are immune to Covid. We have to live and need to work to live each day.

For now, I just want to say thank you to 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.  Thank you."

In partnership with other groups, more care packages are distributed to families in Chak Angre Leu neighborhood 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 2^nd, 40 families received packages and the remaining 57 families on May 11^th. We were happy that some of the Dove Yesic students volunteered to help with the second distribution.