Caritas Cambodia was founded in 1990 and seeks to address the myriad factors that contribute to widespread poverty.

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world and relies heavily on aid. It is also a country still living with the effects of the Khmer Rouge regime, which seized power in 1975: 1.7 million people died in the following three years, many from exhaustion or starvation. The Khmer Rouge ordered city dwellers into the countryside to cultivate fields, and 70 percent of Cambodia's workforce remains employed in subsistence farming.

Caritas Cambodia’s work includes the following areas:

• Development. Sustainable projects include building roads and irrigation canals, improving dams and checking water gates.
• Welfare. Providing services to meet immediate and basic needs such as formal education, health, drinking water and sanitation.
• Vocational training. Caritas helps to teach skills such as painting, sculpture, car mechanics, secretarial work and computer repairs. Help is also provided in setting up small youth forums and business groups.
• HIV and AIDS: Caritas helps to provide home-based care and education sessions in communities.

Other work includes supporting clinics and community-based child and family mental health programmes, and providing community-based rehabilitation for blind people. The agency trains state-employed eye doctors and nurses.