WaterAid’s COVID-19 Response At the beginning of FY20/21, the COVID-19 pandemic began to rapidly spread globally. Whilst we had already been working to scale up our water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs, the ongoing threat of the virus in countries globally, some with incredibly fragile health systems, saw our teams show great resilience as they adapted the majority of WaterAid’s work to respond to COVID-19.
“During this pandemic, I received COVID-19 education materials from WaterAid, those materials are useful for me and other workers. The basic WASH training and hygiene awareness WaterAid provided help us to continue to provide the knowledge to our workers. I observe workers practice washing hands with soap more often.” - Ms. Dany, HR officer of Starite Factory.
Working at all levels within the country, from rural communities through to government ministers and departments, we focused on ensuring people were aware and prepared for COVID-19. At a community level, the team coordinated with the Provincial Health Authority and conducted community outreach, which involved our teams travelling into hard to reach places to ensure even the most remote communities were informed on what the virus was and that washing hands with soap and water was the first line of defence against the pandemic.
WaterAid Cambodia and partners supported the development of new and existing COVID-19 educational materials and delivering these key messages, ensuring communities and workers had adequate knowledge on COVID-19 prevention. This joint response reached over 23,000 workers in eight target factories.
10 | WaterAid Annual Report 2020/21
WaterAid/ Korn Kun
Our teams also used loud speakers to drive through villages and share COVID-19 awareness and preparedness messages more widely and for people unable to read. A key element WaterAid considered in this response was that COVID-19 could disproportionately affect marginalised and vulnerable people, focusing on known marginalised and vulnerable working environments. The team identified construction and brick workers as particularly vulnerable due to their living and working conditions. The team collaborated with the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), the sub-national government and factory owners and management to respond to the pandemic to protect this vulnerable group, and the communities where they worked and lived.
