Ministries and other national bodies
Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation
First elderly care centre to open
The Ministry of Social Affairs plans to create an elderly care centre, which would be the first centre in Cambodia focused on receiving and taking care of the elderly. Officials said it might be created next year. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5091115/first-elderly-care-centre-open/
Employers under disabled job scrutiny
Employers – public and private – which do not meet their obligations to take on disabled people are to face cash penalties, the Social Affairs Ministry says. Ministry secretary of state Sem Sokha said yesterday that for the first time the government had prepared guidance on ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5087987/employers-disabled-job-scrutiny/
Hope replaces fear for street dwellers
For the city’s homeless, Phnom Penh’s busy intersections, pagodas, markets and tourist sites are places of work, where many beg for money, and often lay their heads. Others drag carts or bags around the capital, collecting recyclable waste and scrap materials to sell. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5083116/hope-replaces-fear-street-dwellers/
Cambodia to soon establish juvenile prison: Social Affairs
A sub-decree establishing Cambodia’s first juvenile prison will be issued by the start of September, Minister of Social Affairs Vong Soth told United Nations Special Rapporteur Rhona Smith on Wednesday. ...
Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodia-soon-establish-juvenile-prison-social-affairs
Human rights watch calls for loose-lipped minister’s firing
Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said he did not believe Social Affairs Minister Vong Sauth would face any disciplinary action after he repeated the gist of a seemingly confidential CPP meeting, including an alleged threat by Prime Minister Hun Sen to beat protesters with ...
Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hrw-calls-for-loose-lipped-ministers-firing-133176/
Minister demands loyalty to CPP from civil servants, warns protesters they will be ‘hit with bamboo’
Social Affairs Minister Vong Soth said on Monday that all civil servants must support the Cambodian People’s Party or resign from their jobs, and warned that the government will use bamboo rods to bludgeon anyone who protests after next year’s election. ...
Provinces now responsible for state-run orphanages
The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation yesterday issued a sub-decree delegating responsibility for state-run childcare centres to sub-national levels in a bid to streamline aid to victims of child abuse. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5075389/provinces-now-responsible-state-run-orphanages/
New instruments, but old venue woes for blind musicians
The Social Affairs Ministry has purchased $150,000 worth of musical instruments and sound equipment for Phnom Penh’s blind musicians in a bid to persuade them to perform in designated spaces, though many worry that restricted venues will limit their income. ...
Buth Kimsay
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-instruments-but-old-venue-woes-for-blind-musicians-128694/
Over 35,000 kids still in care
A staggering 35,000 Cambodian children and young people continue to be housed in a range of residential care facilities, with many of them flying under the government’s radar, according to a new report released by the Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday. ...
Touch Sokha and Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/over-35000-kids-still-care
Ministry cracks down in orphans scandal
The Ministry of Social Affairs has decided to reintegrate more than 3,000 children in orphanages back into families after discovering the abysmal conditions of many facilities, with some having reported sexual abuse. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/37654/ministry-cracks-down-in-orphans-scandal/
Pensions to be paid through ATMs
The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation will start dispensing pensions for former civil servants and veterans at select ATMs starting in April. Minister Vong Soth issued a notice yesterday stating that pensioners will be able to withdraw their monthly allocations from Canadia Bank ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/36843/pensions-to-be-paid-through-atms/
New unit to fix prosthetics
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Cambodia announced yesterday the launch of a new mobile workshop that repairs prosthetics for the disabled in Siem Reap province. ...
Andrew Nachemson
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-unit-fix-prosthetics
New facility for young offenders
The Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday confirmed it would construct a new national facility to rehabilitate child offenders. The news follows a meeting last Thursday when spokesman Touch Channy told attendees that the new centre to detain juvenile offenders would be built following the recent adoption ...
Kong Meta and Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-facility-young-offenders
Envoy's report shifts gaze back to Prey Speu
Nougy Mom bounces her 2-year-old son in her arms as she waits at the gates of Phnom Penh’s notorious centre for “undesirables”, Prey Speu. The 34-year-old mother was there to visit her husband, a rubbish collector like herself, who was rounded up by authorities as he ...
Erin Handley and Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/envoys-report-shifts-gaze-back-prey-speu
Ministries discuss long-promised handicap accessibility
Officials from the ministries of social affairs and urban planning met with the Disability Action Council (DAC) on Monday to discuss issuing a prakas to standardise long-promised handicap accessibility in public buildings, according to a Facebook post by DAC. ...
Andrew Nachemson
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministries-discuss-long-promised-handicap-accessibility
Disabled deserve jobs: gov’t
The Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday once again called on the Kingdom’s employers to hire the disabled, something mandated in a widely ignored 2010 sub-decree. ...
Sen David and Cristina Maza
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/disabled-deserve-jobs-govt
Ministry looking to close pension gap for officials
The Ministry of Social Affairs is looking for ways to bring old pension plans into line with pensions offered to more recently retired government workers. ...
Sen David and Yesenia Amaro
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-looking-close-pension-gap-officials
Planned center for mentally ill faces low supply of experts
As the government plans to transfer roughly 60 percent of detainees at the notorious Prey Speu detention center to a “mental illness” center in Kandal province, mental health experts expressed doubts this week over the country’s capacity to provide proper care. ...
Khy Sovuthy and Janelle Retka
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/planned-center-for-mentally-ill-faces-low-supply-of-experts-115420/
New centre for mentally ill planned in wake of Prey Speu mass escape
After a mass escape of 70 inmates from the notorious Prey Speu centre on Sunday, the government said they would take mentally ill people rounded up off the streets and house them on the same site as a Kandal orphanage. ...
Kong Meta and Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-centre-mentally-ill-planned-wake-prey-speu-mass-escape
National deadline for orphanage registration extended—again
The deadline for the country’s orphanages to register with the Ministry of Social Affairs has been extended once again as the government continues its months-long efforts to begin regulating the residential child care system. ...
Taylor O'connell and Khy Sovuthy
Premier calls for support for veterans
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday announced he would be personally helping the families of 100 dead veterans every year and called on others to offer financial help, according to reports. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26381/premier-calls-for-support-for-veterans/
Adoption agreement signed with Catalonia
Seven years after Cambodia put a stop to its own international adoption programs, the Catalan regional government in Spain signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Social Affairs on Tuesday that will allow its residents to adopt Cambodian children. ...
Janelle Retka and Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adoption-agreement-signed-with-catalonia-113847/
Gov’t to talk adoptions on visits to Spain, Malta
Cambodia’s minister of social affairs on Sunday departed for a visit to Spain, which will be followed by a trip to Malta, to discuss and sign adoption agreements with both countries, according to a statement released Sunday. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/govt-talk-adoptions-visits-spain-malta
Half of nation’s orphanages fail to register
Nearly half of the known orphanages in Cambodia missed on Tuesday’s deadline for registering with the government, further delaying attempts to reform the country’s wayward residential child care sector, an official said on Tuesday. ...
Buth Kimsay and Taylor O'connell
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/half-of-nations-orphanages-fail-to-register-113320/