Phnom Penh tragedy – latest update
Dear all
Thank you again for the overwhelming response from all of you: the teams are extremely happy to receive such support!
As promised, here is the latest update on the situation after the Koh Pich tragedy:
Friends / Mith Samlanh is now working with the families of 8 children/young people who died (13 to 23 years of age): the main work is to be there for them and provide emotional support. Since families have received generous financial support in most cases, we ensure that they keep that money safe (including helping them open bank accounts or plan on the use of the money with family members)
We are also working with 11 children and young people (14 to 23 years of age) who are still in hospital: we make sure they receive adequate medical care, and provide a care-taker if no family member is available. For adults in hospital we ensure that if they have children at home, these are taken care of children and for people from the provinces we are helping them contact families and local authorities.
The good news is that we have found 3 of the 4 missing children: we are still looking for a 19 year old girl (factory worker)
The Alternative Care team is coordinating efforts (with partners Mith Samlanh, M’Lop Krousar, SKO, Krousar Yoeung) to identify children who have been orphaned by this tragedy. Unfortunately we did find cases of orphaned children… two of these were babies:
One 3-month old lost her mother. Her father was also feared dead for a few days until we found him seriously injured in hospital. The baby is currently with its grandmother and the team is making sure that the family are emotionally supported through this distressing time and will be able to care for her properly – we have also provided physical support in the form of adequate milk supplies for the baby.
Another, a 7-month old, lost her father. We are supporting the grieving family to return to Kampong Cham and we will again ensure that the entire family will be able to care for this child.
We thank you all so much again for your support and encouragement
The Friends-International / Mith Samlanh teams
