Social development

The greatest obstacle to increased contraception use in Cambodia isn’t the price of birth control or the social stigma around using it, a new study has found, it is fear of side effects. What’s more, this fear may arise from the many disparate medical systems operating ...

The government of Japan has agreed to provide a $134,526 grant to PH-Japan (PHJ) – a Japanese NGO working to improve Cambodia’s healthcare system – the embassy announced yesterday. According to an embassy press release, PHJ will use the money in Kampong Cham province, focusing on ...

The Health Ministry has ordered all provincial health departments to print leaflets about the Zika virus to distribute them throughout the Kingdom. According to a Facebook post on Monday by the Health Ministry’s Communicable Disease Control (CDC) Department, Health Ministry spokesman Ly Sovann said: “All people ...

Turkish companies looking to expand operations in the Kingdom’s health care industry were among the most visible participants of a trade exposition held in Phnom Penh over the weekend. ...

A team of more than 30 doctors and nurses from Hainan province in China have spent the last four days at Kampong Cham provincial hospital removing cataracts from low-income patients. Kang Baiying, a team member and a Hainan provincial official, said her team had been on ...

The Ministry of Health is taking precautionary measures to prevent the transmission of Zika and is asking the public to do the same, as the virus has emerged in other Southeast Asian countries and could make a comeback in the Kingdom. ...

Ethnic Vietnamese residents of Tonle Sap Lake are continuing to head back to Vietnam in droves due to overbearing and costly rules being strictly enforced by local authorities, robbing many of them of the only homeland they have ever known. Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) official Seorn ...

Half of a Kuoy ethnic community forest in Stung Treng province – for which villagers are seeking official recognition – has been logged in the past three years for private commercial gain, according to recently returned environmental activist twins Chum Hout and Chum Hour. Seven ...

A report published last week by the UN Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT) says the main cause of human trafficking from Cambodia to China was a lack of jobs and low wages, forcing many young women to look at opportunities abroad. ...

After reports of 24 more cases of the Zika virus in Singapore, bringing the total to 115 so far, the Ministry of Health has warned Cambodians traveling outside the country – especially pregnant women – to take extra safety precautions and avoid being bitten by ...

Preah Sihanouk provincial authorities plan to recruit about 30 lifeguards to help prevent drownings across the province’s seven beaches. The move comes in the wake of several tourist drownings; the latest casualties involved a South Korean 40-year-old father, Lee Minseock, and his 4-year-old son, Lee Seungjae, ...

The agency tasked with investigating abuse by Malaysia’s security forces said that claims of fatal abuse against foreign maids—including Cambodians—at a detention center were untrue, though it said the center where the abuse allegedly occurred was in urgent need of attention. ...

A new report detailing the experiences of 42 women trafficked from Cambodia as brides to China found that officials in both countries were largely unsupportive in helping women escape once they were caught in unwanted domestic captivity. ...

Cambodian athletes are being screened for Zika after returning from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and health officials will monitor their health for two weeks in order to minimise any possible transmission, an official with the Ministry of Health said yesterday. ...

Four Boeung Kak lake activists, including recently jailed community leader Tep Vanny, will face trial next month for a five-year-old case of insulting and obstructing public officials during a 2011 protest at City Hall. ...

A domestic violence law long criticized by human rights and gender advocacy NGOs for inadequately protecting abuse victims is being reviewed by the government in a renewed effort to reduce violence against women. ...

Real estate developer Shukaku Inc has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with education and training-focused NGO Don Bosco Foundation, worth more than $69,000. Under the MoU, Shukaku would sponsor 20, two-year scholarships for Don Bosco students as well as develop a brand-new computer lab. ...

The government will meet this month to begin addressing concerns that the lack of regulation for the surrogacy trade could lead to a proliferation of brokers working in Cambodia and foreign couples traveling to the country to take advantage of their services. The Ministry of ...

Zaman school officials and parents yesterday urged the Cambodian government not to shutter the schools as the Turkish Ambassador to Cambodia Ilhan Tug has requested, saying students will ultimately suffer. The Turkish Embassy has repeatedly called for the schools’ closure in recent weeks, citing their links ...

Poor women in Cambodia are more likely to use long-term reversible forms of birth control, like IUDs or implants, if they receive outside assistance, a new study has found. ...

The number of Cambodian women now thought to be caught in Saudi Arabia’s sex industry after being trafficked in the past year has risen to more than 20, officials said on Wednesday. However, the government remained tight-lipped about its efforts to rescue the women, while two ...

As the third year of strictly regulated national high school exams drew to a close on Tuesday, the Ministry of Education brushed off evidence of widespread attempts at cheating and declared the event a success. ...

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron applauded the vast majority of Grade-12 students for obeying the strict no-cheating rules he introduced three years ago as nationwide testing kicked off yesterday with relatively few hiccups. ...

The research branch of the NGO Khana has argued in a new peer-reviewed study that livelihood programs for people living with HIV – which address recipients’ economic rather than medical needs – could be the key to significant improvements in quality of life for the ...