On Friday 9 September 2022, Damnok Toek (DT) celebrated the official inauguration of the newly constructed disability “Day Care Centre (DCC)” at the Damnok Toek Centre in Neak Loeung, Prey Veng. The DCC supports children with disabilities (CWD) in Neak Loeung by offering rehabilitative services, medical care, and education for children and families. The Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh supported the construction of the project through the Kusanone grant.
In total, around 300 participants attended the inaugural event, presided by representatives from the Japanese Embassy, Mr Izumi Masahiro, Second Secretary, and Mr Funamura Hiroshi, the Kusanone Grant Coordinator. Government officials included Mr SAN Rotana, Chief of the Department of Welfare for People With Disability who joined on behalf of His Excellency Mr VONG Sauth, Minister of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY). The remaining attendees included local authorities, Damnok Toek staff, and children beneficiaries and their families.
The new DCC is a complete rebuild of the previous facility. It includes the addition of a new physical therapy room, a sensory therapy room, an expansion to the education centre, and a meeting room for parents of CWD, which will host the support group sessions for parents to discuss and share their experience of raising CWD in the community. The facility can accommodate capacity-building training and workshops for DT staff and other disability healthcare professionals.
The DCC was originally established in 2018 and offers care and physical therapy to children with disabilities and support to their families living in rural communities in Neak Loeung, where opportunities to access disability-specific healthcare are very scarce.
The new DCC will allow Damnok Toek to reach more children and increase the quality of services available to them. The previous DCC had the capacity to provide necessary care to 40 children and their families. However, DT has already identified 158 more children in the area who are in need of services. The new DCC will allow DT to welcome 11 more children into the DCC program by the end of 2022. It is DT’s intention to increase that capacity yearly.
DCC Gets a New Look
On January 2022, construction began on the building. The building was completed in July 2022. The Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh funded the total cost of the project of $94,503.50.
“Kusanone” is the Japanese word for “grassroots”. The Kusanone Grant has been offering assistance to grassroots development projects in Cambodia since 1991. The grant funds projects in education, social welfare, agriculture, road and bridge infrastructure development, vocational training, health and medical care, and improved access to water and sanitation.
“We believe that everyone is dependent on others in a society and that nobody should be left behind. In order to realize an inclusive society where children/ people with disabilities are also able to live in harmony, it is important to improve the potential abilities of children/ people with disabilities to increase their opportunities and to enable them to live independently in society,” Mr Funamura Hiroshi, the Kusanone Grant Coordinator, said. “We strongly hope that the new Day Care Center will benefit children and people with disabilities by enabling center staff to provide improved physiotherapy services to users and support their rehabilitation.”
The new Day Care Centre is a significant achievement for Damnok Toek’s Disability Program. As such, it represents a major milestone in DT’s mission to assist vulnerable children and their families. The new DCC provides the space to upgrade and expand the services offered to CWDs. This group remains one of the most vulnerable groups in Cambodia.