From Relief to Recovery: How M’lup Russey’s Aid to the Cambodians Displaced by the 2025 Border Conflict is Changing Lives

M’lup Russey spent the months between December, 2025 and March, 2026 distributing humanitarian aid and providing emergency assistance to Cambodian families who were displaced during the Cambodia-Thai border conflict in 2025. M’lup Russey was able to support 2,040 households in the Pursat, Siem Reap and Battambang areas, with aid reaching 1,200 families, approximately 5,500 individuals, including 1,790 children, 911 girls, 81 women who had recently delivered babies and 11 pregnant women. MRO also directly supported eight individuals with disabilities. This practical aid included emergency food assistance, hygiene packs, counselling, sanitation and dignity support to vulnerable families, as well as the creation of child-friendly spaces in displacement camps and the provision of protection, monitoring and emergency referrals to the most vulnerable. MRO also provided water tanks for safer water supply systems and helped establish separate bathroom facilities for men and women to increase safety and privacy at the displacement sites. . Through cooperation with volunteer social workers, the local authorities, community leaders, local Churches and other partners, the families in need were provided with the relief they needed when they needed it, and, while MRO’s initial plan was to deliver humanitarian relief, the intervention ended up having positive, long term impact on the families, bringing the hope of recovery usually only provided by development programmes.


Relief aid or humanitarian aid is usually provided during emergency crises like a natural disaster, a conflict or war and in refugee crises. This immediate response usually includes providing survivors and refugees with food assistance, water and temporary shelter as well as urgent care, medical or otherwise. Developmental aid is defined by its long-term effects on the people it supports. This aid is supposed to be sustainable, and often provides training and education to those it benefits. Characterised by its close participation and cooperation with beneficiaries, developmental aid becomes successful when the recipients learn how to maintain their resources and can maintain sustainable systems for themselves.


Mrs. H is a pregnant mother living with physical disabilities in Siem Reap with her family, who was forced to flee their home at the end of 2025 due to the border conflict. Their family was already struggling financially and their forced displacement caused further difficulties for the family. Despite her disabilities, Mrs. H was having to take care of her 3 young children by herself because her husband was away at work all day. Due to her family’s home being surrounded by Thai forces, they cannot return home and so were struggling with the limited resources of their life in the displacement site. M’lup Russey was able to provide aid by giving the family food packages, hygiene kits, baby formula and diapers. Mrs. H had been worried about being able to feed her 9-month-old and also worried for the future of her unborn child as well. With MRO’s help, Mrs. H and her children received proper nutrition, improved hygiene which reduced health risks and improved their living conditions, and she was also able to get pre-natal vaccinations to support her own health for the long-term, and that of her unborn baby. Mrs. H is now better able to take care of herself and her children at the displacement site, and her determination to keep her children with her has been strengthened, overcoming every obstacle to make sure her children receive the support, protection, and education they deserve.


Bros M is a 10-year-old boy from Siem Reap and when his was also forced to leave their home, M’lup Russey provided support and positively impacted his family’s lives. Becoming displaced meant that Bros M lost access to his school and all his school supplies, and he risked not being able to return and so falling behind in his education. The family started to experience food insecurity and debts with his father’s irregular work and income, and his father couldn’t find more work as the family didn’t know anyone in their new community. The family was considering sending Bros M to go and live with his grandmother instead, but she also couldn’t afford to care for him. As well as providing humanitarian aid like food, local resources and baby supplies for Bros M’s baby sister, MRO also provided school supplies and the local Community Support Group MRO established helped the family to enroll Bros M into school, where he is now studying in two classes to catch up with his education. Through additional counselling and support from the Community Support Group, Bros M’s father was able to secure a temporary job and the family’s confidence in their future increased. MRO’s support was able to ensure that Bros M would not be separated from his family, and gave his family a more secure future together.


Bros K is a boy 5-year-old in Pursat who lives with intellectual and physical disabilities. Even before displacement, his family struggled to take proper care of him and themselves since they suffered food insecurity, and poor overall health, which had slowed Bros K’s development, and when they were displaced due to the conflict, the situation only got worse. He didn’t have a wheelchair, and his grandmother and siblings carried him everywhere, but his grandmother began to suffer pain from the physical strain of constantly holding him and, it was affecting her ability to earn an income. Bros K’s sister also reported feeling stressed about having to care for her brother and carry him around after school, because it meant she could not spend the time to study. M’lup Russey supported this family by providing Bros K with a wheelchair specifically designed to support his needs. The change in the family after receiving the wheelchair was rapid - their stress reduced and Bros K became visibly happier and showed significant developmental improvements. This support made it easier to take care of Bros K while also working and studying. His grandmother was able to earn more income weaving brooms and his siblings began to do much better at school. The wheelchair given as part of the relief support turned out to be an invaluable resource, improving the lives of Bros K and his family, and ensuring that change is sustainable in the long term.


M’lup Russey was able to provide effective aid and support over the months to directly help the Cambodian families living in displacement sites after they had been forced to flee their homes because of the Thai-Cambodian border conflict. With MRO’s aid, the health and well-being of those living with low resources and in potentially unsafe situations were vastly improved, but so much more than that, the support that M’lup Russey was able to give touched the lives of over 5,000 people in ways that are already having far-reaching positive effects on those they supported, helping families to recover in the long-term.