Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth, who is also chairman of the board of trustees of Kantha Bopha Foundation in Cambodia, urged the public to continue supporting the the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital, which treated children free of charge in the spirit of “Khmer helping Khmer”.

At an online meeting of the foundation’s board of trustees on July 20, Pornmoniroth placed high value on the hospital’s efforts to check and treat a great many children and encouraged the hospital to continue this vital work.

He also appreciated the efforts of the mobilisation of funds and advised the secretariat to apply even more effort into spreading the word about the importance of the hospital to the public. Public funds were crucial to sustain the hospital’s operations.

According to a press release issued by the board of trustees on July 20, in first half of this year the foundation had received $15.7 million in donations, an increase of 9.7 per cent over the same period last year.

During this period, the foundation had transferred more than $4 million to the hospital, and the rest of the donations were deposited in the Commercial Bank.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the secretariat said fund raising campaign has transitioned online.

According to the press statement, the hospitals have received 226,194 patients with 45, 075 severe cases and 10,190 patients requiring surgery during the first half of this year.

It called on the public to continue donations to the foundation by becoming honourary members with a contribution of 20,000,000 riel per year and supporting members with 5,000 riel per month or 60,000 riel per year.