For us here at Cufa, 2020 was a year of adaption and success in the face of adversity. In February, much like the rest of the world, Cufa’s work was greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Cambodia, our Project Officers were quick to adapt to a rapidly changing and unpredictable global environment.

According to DFAT in October, Cambodia has managed to protect its citizen from the worst health impacts of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the pandemic has impacted Cambodia’s most important economic sectors: garments, tourism, and construction. The World Bank estimated that before COVID-19, these sectors accounted for more than 70 per cent of the country’s GDP annual growth. Cambodia is at risk of re-entrenching intergenerational poverty due to the economic shocks and the high rates of indebtedness caused by microfinance institutions.

When schools closed in March, we rapidly adapted our Children’s Financial Literacy Program to be safely delivered to children in their homes. We turned to conduct home visits, with 808 home visits conducted, ensuring that the financial literacy classes could continue. This allowed for the opportunity to further engage families in financial education and encouraging parents to motivate their children.

Community members in Kampong Cham alerted Cufa to the demands for greater access to soap and washing powder. In response, Cufa pivoted the first stream of the Recycling Plastics Livelihoods Project for the community social enterprises to instead produce liquid hand soap. The adapted COVID-19 Livelihoods Response Program has facilitated community social enterprises, of which 67% of members are women, to produce and sell 2,940 litres of liquid hand soap. CSEs have made a total profit of USD 1,038.35.

As 2021 marks Cufa’s 50th year of work, Cufa looks forward to continuing to work with rural communities, Cufa-supported credit unions and schools to continue and expand its footprint.