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Elephant gets a new prosthetic limb, originally uploaded by Cambodia Trust.

10 CSPO students have stepped in to help Baby Chhouk - a 4-year old elephant at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center, Cambodia.

Using their skills in prosthetics, the students have made a special prosthesis for Chhouk to help him walk. Chhouk lost 12 cms of his left leg, possibly in a snare, and was found wandering through the jungle alone.

Read more about how the CSPO students gave up their free time to help Chhouk! http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009060826323/National-news/Baby-Chhouk-gets-a-leg-up-on-life.html

Victoria Maw and her friends are organising a gig in support of the Cambodia Trust and in memory of their friend Joanna Stillwell.

The event is on July 25th at The Faversham in Leeds. For more details visit the Cam Jam page on Facebook!

You can also support the event on the Cam Jam Justgiving page.

Billy’s Cookies for Cambodia campaign, originally uploaded by Cambodia Trust.

I’m Billy and I created the “Cookies for Cambodia” campaign. I am a freshman in high school and I have a project in my World Cultures class called the Power of One project. I have been asked to create a change in a country outside of the United States. With the help and support from the Cambodia Trust Organization I have also raised awareness of their cause through pamphlets and posters that they have provided. I am passionate about the Cambodia Trust Organization and their cause and have recently held a bake sale to raise money for a disabled child to attend school. So far, I have raised $80 towards this goal. I plan to hold another bake sale to achieve my ultimate goal. There is also an information night that is going to be held at my school on June 1, 2009, where I can spread awareness. In past years over 500 people have attended this night. I am hoping to create a poster and pamphlet of my own to show everyone who attends. I am also going to try and show a video clip of Cambodia Trust efforts by compiling youtube videos of the Cambodia Trust Organization.

A film has been made about the Cambodia Trust by film-maker Tori Hogan of Beyond Good Intentions:

Beyond Good Intentions is an organization committed to uncovering more innovative and effective approaches to international aid worldwide. Through our film series and educational programs we are working to catalyze a much-needed dialogue about aid effectiveness in hopes of transforming the current system. Click on the links below to learn more about our work.

The film is very positive about our work and the high standards we have achieved through ISO certification. You can watch the film here:

http://www.beyondgoodintentions.com/episode4.html 

- you can also join the debate and watch bonus features including an interview with our very own Mary Scott - just click on the links at the bottom of the screen. Our thanks to Tori and Beyond Good Intentions for bringing our work to a wider audience!

Lim Eng, originally uploaded by Cambodia Trust.

I visited The Cambodia Trust in the summer of 2008 doing research for an oral history and photography project working with women landmine survivors. Along with my friend, photographer Nura Qureshi, I hoped to learn how our project could best depict the beauty of women who persist beyond injury to live with dignity and do the important work of rebuilding life after war.

We were drawn to The Cambodia Trust because of the locality of their approach, and the emphasis they place on changing the way that disabled people are perceived in society. At our site visit to The Cambodian School of Prosthetics and Orthotics (CSPO) in Phnom Penh, we met with several women landmine survivors who work for The Cambodia Trust, two as Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) workers, and one who works on-site at the CSPO. In our interviews with them, we learned much about the challenges disabled people face in participating in Cambodian society. But we also learned how powerful the living examples of these women are.

When we met Lim Eng, who has been a CBR worker with The Cambodia Trust since 1993, she launched full-speed into her story with passion and warmth and insistence. As the translator and I worked to keep up, she would wait with an intense patience, and when I spent time with her transcript after I got home, those same qualities, passion and patient determination, came through throughout her story. I am drawn to oral history because it gives the story back to the teller – rather than writing about someone, oral history lets someone tell her own story, in her own voice.

To me, Lim Eng’s story shows the power of someone doing just that. Her willingness to share her story honestly, both her struggles as well as her successes, is one of her most powerful tools as a CBR worker for helping other disabled people overcome taboo or shame and get treatment, and begin to reclaim their lives. Here is her story, in her words.

Nicki Plombier

Lim Eng’s story on 3 Generations

In 2004, Nelson da Silva became the first person from East Timor to graduate from CSPO; Cambodia Trust’s School of Prosthetics and Orthotics in Phnom Penh. The qualification and experience he received allowed him to return to Dili to develop physical rehabilitation services with Cambodia Trust’s partner organisation (ASSERT).

In February 2009, Nelson returned to Cambodia to spend one month with Cambodia Trust to further develop his orthotics skills and ensure he continues to offer the best solutions to the many patients in East Timor living with the effects of cerebral palsy, club foot and polio.

Nelson, who contracted polio as a child, understands the importance of good orthotics and knows the benefits they bring a patient.

“In East Timor we have many patients living with the effects of club foot, polio and cerebral palsy. Spending time with my colleagues in Cambodia gives me an opportunity to further develop my skills towards ensuring patients in East Timor receive the best possible treatment”

“I received my first orthotic brace when I was 10 years old, but this involved a trip to Indonesia; returning each year for repairs and adjustments as my body developed. However, even this option came to an end in 1999 when the situation between East Timor and Indonesia deteriorated. During this time I was forced to repair my own orthosis” 

Nelson was drawn to the profession through this own experience, as well as his country’s desperate need for physical rehabilitation services.  “My interest to become a prosthetist/orthotst grew from a combination of living with a disability and experiencing at first hand the lack of services available in my country. I really enjoy my job and want to continue helping persons with disabilities in East Timor.” 

 www.asserteasttimor.com 

On a recent visit to Cambodia, Ann Clwyd, British MP for the South Wales constituency of Cynon Valley, toured Cambodia Trust’s Phnom Penh centre to see at first hand the various services delivered for persons with disabilities through training, rehabilitation and community development.

The visit included a tour of the Cambodia Trust’s prosthetics and orthotics education centre (CSPO) which, since opening its doors in 1994, has graduated 133 students from low income countries enabling them to make artificial limbs and braces. Many of their patients are landmine and UXO survivors.

Ann said she found the visit both fascinating and inspiring,

“It was great to be able to see first hand the positive impact Cambodia Trust is making to improve services for persons with disabilities in a low income country with one of the world’s largest disabled populations, including an estimated 43,000 landmine survivors and 50,000 people affected by polio.”

Cathy McConnell, CSPO school manager spoke warmly about the MP’s visit,“Ms. Clwyd met with 1^st year students during class and chatted with them enthusiastically about our three year program. As well as Cambodians we have students from various low income countries where prosthetic and orthotic skills are in high demand. We currently have 7 from Iraq.  We then toured our clinic where, through an interpreter, Ms. Clwyd chatted with one of the patients.”

Ann then went on to meet Ms. Chhoy Sokhorn, the Community Development Team Leader (a woman with disabilities) and was particularly keen to hear about Cambodia Trust’s community education and skills development activity. This was followed by a tour of the prosthetic/orthotic workshop, allowing Ann to meet and chat with a few of the school’s 3^rd year students as they worked on prosthetic/orthotic devices.

 “Ms. Clwyd and her associates were a pleasure to host.” added Cathy 

Monica and Nic Tweddell, recently visited our clinic in Phnom Phen, Monica has written to tell the story of her visit and why they support the Cambodia Trust.

“We were encouraged to visit Cambodia by both our sons, who have travelled through Southeast Asia in recent years. Our younger son Toby (pictured left) and his fiancée Jenny were particularly moved by the people of Cambodia, and after Toby was killed in a road accident in 2006 Jenny suggested that if people wanted to remember Toby in a special way that they give to the Cambodia Trust.

In January this year we spent three fantastic weeks in Cambodia, visiting the Trust in Phnom Phen on our final day. We were given a warm welcome by Steve Cord and some of the trainees in prosthetics/orthotics, and watched the making of an artificial leg and a ‘corset’. We were most impressed by the work of the Trust in training people from all over southeast Asia – and further afield – particularly important when there are so many places in the region still suffering from the effects of land mines.

We’d like to encourage friends of Toby’s to join the Mekong to Angkor Cycle Challenge and ride for the Cambodia Trust and for Toby.” 

Mark Inglis visiting the Cambodia Trust Kompong Chhnang rehabilitation centre, originally uploaded by Cambodia Trust.

We all have the ability to change the future, both our own and the future of others as well.

In October 2009 I will be leading a Saigon to Angkor Wat cycle ride to raise funds for the Cambodia Trust. 500km of mountainbiking? Sounds a touch warmer than Everest (and with the heat tougher in many ways than Everest for me) but I am up for it, are you?

I know that in taking on a challenge I will take control of not just my future but will help create a future of opportunity for people with disabilities in Cambodia as well. It is not ‘legs’ that we are raising money for, but the potential to live a life of opportunity.

Legs, useful things, but far more than just holding you upright, the minute you lose them you lose potential in life. The Cambodia Trust, in providing prosthetic legs and more importantly, training the expert, qualified staff to make and fit them, are providing the opportunity for people with disabilities in Cambodia to have that basic human right - opportunity in life. The one thing after 26 years (yep, been longer without legs than with them!) that I do know is that I have been privileged to have been given the opportunity to live a different life, it is certainly not easier but just different!

The Cambodia Trust needs your support so if you’re looking for challenge and adventure, please join me. Check out charitychallenge.com

See you in Cambodia…..?

Mark

Join mountaineer and Cambodia Trust patron Mark Inglis on the adventure of a lifetime! Cycle from Saigon to Angkor Wat with Charity Challenge and help raise funds for our vital work.

You will cycle 500kms past plantations, across waterways and through villages deep in the heart of the lush Mekong Delta in Vietnam, to the dry lands and contrasting sights of ancient Cambodia.

Your challenge leader is Mark Inglis - the first double amputee to reach the summit of Everest. Mark has raised thousands of dollars for the Cambodia Trust’s work and will be your guide as you stop off en route at our rehabilitation centre and school in Phnom Penh - so you can see for yourself what a difference your fundraising will make. The trip is run by Charity Challenge - experts in adventure travel and supporters of our work for many years.

The challenge runs from 22nd October to 1st November 2009. Interested? Please email office[at]cambodiatrust.org.uk for more info and to reserve your place now!