About The Cambodia Trust

In the developing world, disabled people are the poorest of the poor. Discriminated against at every level of society, they are seen as ‘useless’ - a burden on the family, and the community. Excluded from education and employment opportunities, they remain dependent; trapped in the cycle of poverty. Disabled women and children living in rural areas are particularly disadvantaged.

The Cambodia Trust works with local partners in developing countries, setting up projects to reduce poverty and increase self-sufficiency amongst disadvantaged disabled people. The Trust's aim is to help disabled people to play an equal part in all aspects of society.

In Cambodia, the Trust's projects include 3 rehabilitation centres, community-based rehabilitation, advocacy and a regional school providing accredited training for Prosthetist-Orthotists (specialists who prescribe and fit artificial limbs and braces) from across the developing world. Cambodia has a large disabled population, as a result of thirty years of conflict, the destruction of the health service and millions of landmines. There are an estimated 40,000 landmine survivors (and new victims every day) and 50,000 people affected by conditions such as polio, cerebral palsy and club foot.

In East Timor, the newest country in the world, the Trust has established the first national rehabiltiation centre for disabled people. There are at least 6,000 people in East Timor who need artificial limbs or orthopaedic braces, including many people affected by leprosy. Until now, with few Prosthetic and Orthotic resources in Timor, these people have been isolated and dependent.

In Sri Lanka, the Trust has established a national training centre for Prothetist-Orthotists. There are around 160,000 disabled people who need artificial limbs and braces in Sri Lanka, including many landmine accident survivors and victims of conflict. However, there are only 2 trained specialists in the whole of the country (both graduates of the Trust's training school in Cambodia). Sri Lanka needs a minimum of 115 Prosthetist-Orthotists to meet the needs of the disabled population.

We are appealing for your support to restore mobility, dignity and self-sufficiency:

• £30 provides a bicycle to make it easier for a disabled child to get to school
• £75 provides a wheelchair
• £100 provides an artificial limb for a landmine survivor, which will last 6 months (for a child) to 2 years (for an adult)

Our history

The Cambodia Trust was founded in 1989 in Oxford, UK, in response to the terrible suffering of Cambodia's thousands of landmine survivors.

The Trust opened its first limb-fitting clinic in the capital city, Phnom Penh, in 1992, with further clinics set up in the port of Sihanoukville in 1993, and the provincial capital of Kompong Chhnang in 1995.

What began as a response to the landmine emergency developed into a long-term project.

Cambodia has approximately 40,000 landmine survivors, and this figure will continue to rise for many years to come - until every landmine has been found and destroyed.

Conflict and poverty have also left an estimated 50,000 people disabled by polio in Cambodia. In response to the wider needs of the disabled population, the Trust's clinics were developed into full rehabilitation centres providing support for all mobility-impaired disabled people. All services are provided free of charge, as the beneficiaries simply cannot afford to pay. For most of the Trust's beneficiaries, the cost of an artificial limb is more than their annual income.

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and people with disability are the poorest of the poor. In order to help disabled people break out of the cycle of poverty, the Cambodia Trust expanded its work in 1999, to include the wider aspects of rehabilitation, such as training and education, as well as working to uphold disabled people's rights.

The majority of Cambodia's skilled workers and teachers were killed by the Khmer Rouge. In order to tackle the lack of skills amongst the local workforce, and to ensure the technical sustainability of its work, the Cambodia Trust co-founded a training centre in Phnom Penh in 1994, The Cambodian School of Prosthetics & Orthotics.

At the school, students from developing countries across the region learn to fit artificial limbs and braces. Talented graduates who have gained experience working in the Trust's rehabilitation centres have now gone on to train in teaching and management. This focus on training local people is helping to form the backbone for sustainable rehabilitation services in Cambodia and across the region.

The school is one of only four centres in the world to be accredited by the International Society for Prosthetists and Orthotists.

In 2002, the Cambodia Trust began researching ways in which it could share its expertise beyond Cambodia. In 2004, the Trust launched two new projects: a rehabilitation centre in East Timor and a Prosthetics and Orthotics training school in Sri Lanka.