Social affairs minister Vong Soth will lead a delegation to Japan to learn about care for elderly people. SOCIAL AFFAIR MINISTRY
Minister of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation Vong Soth is scheduled to visit a nursing home in Japan to learn more about how the East Asian nation safeguards the welfare of the elderly in order to apply those insights to his duties in Cambodia.
The planned visit follows an invitation from the chief representative of the Japan-Cambodia Interactive Association (JCIA), who met with the minister on February 28. Soth met with the JCIA director, Fumio Yamada, to discuss the social welfare and challenges faced by the elderly in Cambodia.
Yamada asked the minister to visit a nursing home in Japan to learn from each other’s experiences with caring for the elderly.
Soth accepted the invitation, saying he will lead a delegation to Japan at a suitable time to visit the nursing home in person to gain insight into Japanese methods that might help ensure the welfare of the elderly in Cambodia.
“During the outbreak of Covid-19, the Cambodian government has taken great care of the poor people who have been affected by the pandemic, especially focusing on the elderly over the age of 60, through various social assistance programmes to support their living costs on a monthly basis,” Soth said.
Yamada said that during the three years of the pandemic, the nursing home centres in Japan were not fully operating and it was only recently that the centres were reopened as planned.
He also expected that in the near future, the ministry would send officials for training in elderly care at the centre in person and become core teachers who could pass on what they learn upon returning to Cambodia.
Tum Vira, executive director of HelpAge Cambodia, said if the social affairs ministry visited a nursing home in Japan, it would be an opportunity for Cambodia to learn from the developed nation.
“This would be an important visit and taking steps for Cambodia to learn about Japan, which is a developed country and has the highest percentage of elderly people in the world. I think the delegation may not only focus on visiting the nursing home, but also understand the state of Japan’s social response system for the elderly,” he said.
