{"id":1673,"date":"2020-05-19T05:12:30","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T10:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charlesconklin.com\/4cambodia\/?p=1673"},"modified":"2020-05-19T05:26:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T10:26:17","slug":"covid-19-first-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charlesconklin.com\/4cambodia\/2020\/covid-19-first-project\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: First Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In March, MCC Cambodia partnered with 11 local churches to provide food relief to 150 poor households (approximately 600 people) as our first COVID-19 specific project. The primary goal of this small scale initiative was to provide these households with enough nonperishable food to enable them to shelter safely in place during a three week COVID-19 related lock down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Most [poor community members] are farmers and workers. During this COVID-19, they are locked down at home. Problems: can\u2019t go to work, lack of income. Needs: rice, meat, medications. There will be worse if COVID-19 continue to spread out and the lockdown still continue.\u201d <\/p>Borin Touch, Pastor at Capernaum Church<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 has disrupted the livelihoods of many Cambodian laborers, leaving them unemployed just as border closures and hoarding have caused food shortages and dramatic price increases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MCC personnel locally procured and packaged the food relief, following COVID-19 prevention best practices. One of our YAMEN participants, Jonathan from Kenya, has a business background and is partnered with Rajana<\/a> – a fair trade organization affiliated with Ten Thousand Villages<\/a>. He researched best practices for disinfecting food packages and developed a workflow for packaging that ensured no accidental transmission of COVID-19. Jonathan took care to also prevent disinfectant chemicals from leeching into the food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our Accountant and Partner Auditor, Ringsey, pickled 10 kilograms of vegetables to include in the packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We distributed the food relief packages to church leaders and trained them on COVID-19 prevention. Our Connecting Peoples Coordinator, Sokea, delivered the packages in Phnom Penh. I delivered the packages to the rural churches with our Education Coordinator, Chhourn Maly<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The church leaders then distributed the food relief following the COVID-19 sensitive using one of two methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n