IP/95/95

Brussels, 2 February 1995

SPOKESMAN'S SERVICE

Farming families fleeing a Khmer Rouge offensive in Cambodia will get help with shelter, basic household kits and access to drinking water under a project that the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) is funding.

CONCERN WORLDWIDE, the Dublin-based non-governmental organisation, will be managing the project, for which ECHO has earmarked 295,000 Ecu. The grant will help over 50,000 people in the north and west of Siem Reap Province. The Khmer Rouge has destroyed many villages in its recent offensive. Those fleeing are putting immense pressure on the resources of villages in safer areas, and CONCERN fieldworkers say disease and death among displaced people are inevitable without emergency action to defuse the crisis.

This project will involve providing shelter kits for those whose houses have been burnt down, as well as temporary shelter for those who may be able to return to their houses eventually. Families in need will get blankets, mosquito nets and kits of basic household goods. CONCERN will supervise the drilling of water boreholes, and of temporary latrines. The operation is expected to last four months.