COVID-19 Update: March 27th 2020

While the Hagar office in Cambodia has not officially closed, staff did a trial of working from home this week in preparation should this need to occur. Hagar Cambodia has made the decision to stop travelling to client’s homes and different provinces for the safety of everyone. Going forward, Hagar staff will continue to provide counselling services to clients over the phone. The Case Managers have regular follow up calls to clients to ensure they are safe and feeling supported.

Hagar Cambodia is currently providing direct help and walking the recovery journey with 133 clients. Normally, a Hagar Cambodia staff member would connect with a client at least once every 2 weeks and this is still very much the goal. This week, Hagar staff have been sharing with clients about the Coronavirus and how to stay healthy and in the last week have managed to connect with 96 clients in some way. So far, we are unaware of any Hagar Cambodia staff or clients having been infected with the virus.

Pictured above are members of the Hagar Counselling team. Please keep them in your prayers.

Our Work in Cambodia

Listen to Longdy (a former Hagar client who now works as a counsellor) share his story with Steven Moe here. We are so proud of him!

With an estimated 256,800 people living in modern slavery, Cambodia has the highest level of slavery in the world after North Korea and Uzbekistan. Domestic and gender-based violence are common, with a recent UNICEF report revealing that one in five Cambodian men between the ages of 18 and 49 admitted to raping someone.

Hagar works directly with people who are the human face of these harrowing statistics. At the individual level, we ensure they have a safe place to live. We provide them with trauma counselling, medical care and legal advice to help them understand their rights and seek justice. They also have the opportunity to go to school, learn vocational skills or gain a university degree. Ultimately, because of Hagar they are able to overcome their trauma and be transformed.

At the national level, we work closely with the Royal Government of Cambodia and police to increase their knowledge of trafficking practices and trauma informed care.

We also developed a toolkit for legal professionals, which is now being used across Cambodia to ensure that children who have survived abuse are not re-traumatised during the legal process. We are currently working in close collaboration with First Step Cambodia, to support the government in developing Cambodia’s first set of social work standards.