Servants Cambodia Assists
Fire Victims
Published: 4/2/2004
On Tuesday,
Servants Cambodia completed an emergency distribution to
victims of last weekend’s slum fire affecting 300
families.
Servants mobilized a number of local
Christians to help with the distribution. Young people from
Cambodian churches volunteered to help lift heavy bags of rice
and other supplies for the elderly and others. Fire victims
were clearly touched by the hard work of the Christian
volunteers.
Servants also coordinated the relief
efforts of a number of other organizations, receiving
donations and meeting with local officials. For example, Mercy
Teams International donated hundreds of “hygiene packs”
containing soap, toothpaste and other items. While Maryknoll
and CRS made financial donations.
Hundreds of poor
families lost their tiny homes and all their possessions when
a fire swept through the slum located on the banks of the
river.
Remarkably, the nearby British American Tobacco
Company was untouched by the blaze, as fire engines were
stationed in the company grounds. Residents complained
bitterly that firemen demanded large sums of money in order to
turn on their fire hoses.
A number of Khmer and
expatriate Servants workers live within a few hundred metres
of the fire site and were woken by the sound of fire engines
at two o’clock in the morning. The cause of the fire is
unknown.
