The poorest flood victims living in five villages in Dang Kambeth Commune, Sandan District, Kampong Thom Province (Prey Lang area), had material assistance distributed to them on 28th February 2012 by a team of ADHOC employees. The assistance was bought with donations from Cambodian people in Canada to provide food to the flood victims and the poorest families. A total of 334 families were reached by this donation.
Based on research, ADHOC decided to provide material assistance to flood victims in this area as it was one of the most severely hit places and also it is extremely remote so not much aid had reached here previously. Some of the families had already gotten some material assistance from the government but only a few. Most families had not received any assistance from the government, Red Cross or NGOs because of the remoteness of the area. Before providing material assistance ADHOC went to observe the situation, holding direct meetings with poor families in each village to assess needs. Each of the 334 poorest families received 50kilograms of rice and a supply of canned foods. The victims gathered at Kiriboparam Pagoda to receive the packages.
President of ADHOC, Mr.Thun Saray explained how the organisation carried out a direct survey with the flood victims and the poorest, most vulnerable, through cooperating with the local authorities in providing the assistance to the victims. He specified that each donation is unqualified charity and that there was to be no discrimination against any victims on the grounds of political or other beliefs. Mr. Chun Bunkorrn, representative of the donators from Canada, said that the donation is to help the poorest people but that all victims can unfortunately not be reached with the limited amount. He pledged that he will bring the video recording of the administration of assistance to show to other potential donors in Canada in an attempt to raise more funds for the remaining victims. Mr Outh Samourn, on behalf of the local authorities, said that the 334 families living in the five villages were severely affected by the floods in 2011 and the area is extremely remote and very far from the town meaning that aid was scarce. During the flooding the commune never had the Government, development organisations or the Red Cross come to provide assistance due to the lack of infrastructure and hence inaccessibility of the area. The local authorities could only provide a few families with material assistance- those who came to the district office, as the roads to the villages are so bad. The material assistance administered by ADHOC was therefore very important. ADHOC provides help, not only the human rights victims, but also poor and vulnerable families, with the goal of assisting and strengthening the grassroots people of Cambodia.
