Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth has recently established five ad-hoc working groups to form a strategic framework and policies on social assistance intervention in order to help people bear the impacts of the lockdown.
In an announcement on April 24, Pornmonirith said the ad-hoc working groups are tasked with identifying and designating locations for social intervention assistance to be carried out.
The working groups have to prepare mechanisms for implementing the interventions by making determining what the government’s options are for rendering assistance, what types of intervention would be most appropriate and how much can assistance can be provided to the target populations.
The NGO World Vision Cambodia has – in collaboration with local authorities – delivered food assistance to 527 poor and vulnerable families in the capital in the districts of Sen Sok, Por Senchey, Chbar Ampov, Dangkor and Prek Pnov. The food assistance included 3.5 tonnes of rice, canned fish, fish sauce and other groceries.
World Vision’s manager in Cambodia Heam Chetra said that his NGO could relieve the burden of hunger from people in need and help keep them from starvation, particularly children.
“We want to see more and more people join with World Vision to help their fellow Cambodians. I believe that we all can help the poor people who are going through this crisis and in greatest need of assistance,” she said.
For the people in the red zones in the capital, Phnom Penh municipal hall spokesperson Meth Meas Pheakdey said the government is preparing to release food assistance for them and that they should be patient and not worry about it.
“The municipal hall has already received the food assistance from the Prime Minster to deliver to the people in the red zones of the lockdown area. We are delivering that assistance to them,” he said on April 23, adding that more than 400,000 people had already received the relief aid.