Tell poverty to sock off and help Cambodian kids

Kwinana, Warnbro and Rockingham MLAs are socking it to poverty this month as part of Catholic Mission's Socktober campaign to enhance accessibility of education for disadvantaged Cambodian children.

Roger Cook, Paul Papalia and Mark McGowan urge people to don their brightest socks this October and donate to a worthy cause, which will fund a mobile learning facility for children of internal migrant families.

According to Catholic Mission donor relations officer Katie Hunt, the facility would support children of families migrating from provinces looking for work in Phnom Penh city but do not settle in one place - meaning a permanent structure for children's education is ineffective.

She said the facility, developed by Daughters of Charity, would provide a mobile place to learn that moves on to the next location once class has finished.

Mrs Hunt said it was positive to see poverty rates were declining, but believed those on the brink were the people to be concerned about.

According to the World Bank, the number of poor people in Cambodia has more than halved from 53 per cent in 2004 to 20.5 per cent in 2011, taking it to 6.9 million people.

WB's findings from last year indicate Cambodia's 8.1 million "near poor", individuals living on less than $2.30 a day, remain vulnerable to slipping back into poverty if their situation changed, even slightly.

WB Poverty Analyst and co-author of the Poverty Assessment Report said if they were to lose about 30 cents a day, it would throw about 3 million Cambodians back into poverty, doubling the poverty rate to 40 per cent.

Mr Hunt encouraged outrageous sock wearers to post their photos to social media with the hashtag #sockittopoverty.

Alternatively, she urged anyone who wanted to donate to contact 9422 7933.