HelpAge Cambodia

In 1991, HelpAge International established a Country Programme Office in Cambodia. Its initial operation was undertaking humanitarian relief work in response to Cambodian refugees repatriating from Thai border camps before transitioning to community development work.

Since 1992, it has been working to improve the lives of older people. HelpAge Cambodia successfully registered as a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with the Ministry of Interior in December 2012 and became an official Affiliate of HelpAge Global Network in March 2014

HelpAge Cambodia has implemented two regional projects and local projects in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Siem Reap province.

  • Strengthening the CSO Network on Ageing as a development partner in Southeast Asia:  The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the empowerment of civil society in Southeast Asia so it can mobilise communities and represent the views of poor and vulnerable older persons effectively through multi-stakeholder dialogue. The specific objective of project is to build stronger East Asia/Pacific Network on Ageing, including 21 members in eight target countries, which is more capable of gathering the views of older people, mobilising their community organisations, and acting as strategic partner with ASEAN and its member governments to address the challenges of rapid ageing.
  • Strengthening the Asian Network on Ageing: The goal of project is to improve the well-being of older people, their families and communities by promoting organised self-help approaches and disseminating the skills needed for community action and social protection policy development.
  • Older People’s Associations as Champions for Income Security and Social Inclusion of older people in Cambodia: Overall goal of the project is to increase inclusion and financial security among older people in target areas of Cambodia. There are 3 outcomes and 8 outputs to achieve this goal. The project is to aim establishing 40 new OPAs and 2 new federations. In addition, it will setup a stronger network among all 7 federations, which will be preparatory proceedings of the national-level federation. In order to achieve our goal of reduce risk of poverty and social exclusion, community-based organizations lead by older people themselves like OPAs and federations must become stronger so that they can gather one strong voice of older people in Cambodia to advocate their rights and better quality of life. These are not only for developing older people but also developing the whole community. HelpAge’s approach in this project is well-matched with country partnership strategy (CPS) of Korean government for the kingdom of Cambodia; rural development and human resources development.
  • Building age-inclusive and disaster resilient communities in Cambodia by reducing and mitigating impacts of climate change and natural disasters: Overall objective is to reduce the impact of climate change and natural disasters on older people. The project aims to build coordinated age-inclusive, disaster resilient communities to reduce underlying vulnerabilities to climate related hazards through implementing disaster risk reduction activities, with specific focus on improving disaster preparedness and response, and strengthening resilient livelihoods. Key outcomes will be the establishment and strengthening of Older People’s Association, to assess their disaster context and to work with community stakeholders to develop age inclusive disaster risk reduction plans to strengthen community resilience. The second outcome will focus on providing training and inputs for farmers to increase their crop productivity, resilience and diversification and improve water resource management whilst also reducing farmers’ debt burden through the establishment of community managed micro loan funds.

Contact information

Vira TUM, Executive Director
House 305, Group 5, Rumcheck 4 Village, Rattanak Commune, Battambang CAMBODIA
Tel: +855 53 953 797
Fax: +855 53 952 707
Email: ed@helpagecambodia.org
Website: www.helpagecambodia.org

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