Ms. Ou Rai and her children

“Without cash transfer from HelpAge Cambodia, I and my grandchildren would live in a very hard condition during this Covid19 pandemic”, said Ms. Ou Rai.

Ms. Ou Rai, 63 years old widow who is currently living with her two grandchildren in Kampong Cheng village of Baydamram commune in Banan district of Battambang province. Her daily livelihood is collecting shells along Sangke river and sometimes a hired labor for cleaning grass at other’s garden. She could earn between 5,000R to 10,000R ($1.5-$2.5) per day which this income is irregularly and depend on the season, she told.

Ms. Rai is living in poor health conditions and hardship live. She also responses to take care and feed her two grandchildren in her everyday life while their parents moved to work as workers in Thailand and rarely send them to stipend to support her family living expense. Thus, Ms. Rai has to make her life harder to earn money by herself in this old age and to feed her grandchildren.

Within this Covid19 pandemic in Cambodia and reached to the community, Ms. Rai find it more difficult to earn for her daily living while there are very few hires of her labor to clean the grass as many as before. She could earn very little during this pandemic and can’t afford the food regularly for her grandchildren and herself. So, sometimes she asks or borrows rice from her neighbor for just a day-to-day living.

Even though Ms. Rai is living in a poor condition, still she hasn’t received an ID Poor card from the local government which doesn’t allow her to access for cash transfer program of government for a poor family within this Covid19 pandemic.

Luckily, Ms. Rai is a member of OPA in Kampong Cheng and one among the selected beneficiaries under SDC funded project. Therefore, she could have received the cash transfer from the project within this period include some sanitation materials for preventions from Covid19 transmission. “I’ve got cash transfer of 200,000R ($50) from HelpAge Cambodia for two times during this Covid19 pandemic period, and I have used it to buy rice from my neighbor about 187kg for reserved include some food ingredient”, she said.

So far, she also gets some cash and support from her OPA in the village as well before and during this Covid19 pandemic. “I’m very happy to being a member of OPA and receive support from HelpAge Cambodia, especially during this hard time. And thanks you for always take care and support older people”. she continued.