Childcare

The government on Wednesday urged orphanages and other child-care centres in the Kingdom to adopt operational regulations set forth by the Ministry of Social Affairs. At a government workshop on protecting children, Prak Chanthoeun, director general of the ministry’s technical department, said he wanted NGO-run child-care facilities to follow the same regulations as state-run facilities, noting that many NGOs do not follow a set policy for taking in and caring for children. The ministry, Prak Chanthoeun said, wants child-care centres throughout Cambodia to monitor children who enter and leave their care and to give people over the age of 18 the right to leave voluntarily. Cambodia currently has 221 centres caring for over 10,000 children, with only 21 sponsored by the government, he said. Kem Kimlang, director of Enfants d’Asie Aspeca, which operates two centres, agreed with Prak Chanthoeun about the importance of establishing nationwide regulation, noting the difficulty her organisation faces in managing the 2,000 children in its care.