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An Advanced Life Support Ambulance Officer from Australia with a career of 22 years, I was medically retired with PTSD in 2001.
For the past few years, I have been a First Aid Trainer for the Australian Red Cross at Alice Springs in Central Australia.
Last year, I saw a position advertised to go to Cambodia as a volunteer First Aid Trainer with Australian Red Cross to train 1700 disadvantaged Cambodian youths currently in Vocational Training in a variety of trades at Pour un Sourire d'Enfant (PSE) http://pse.ong/ This was to be funded out of the Australian Foreign Aid budget as an AVID project
Unfortunately, just prior to being appointed to the position, the funding for this project was withdrawn due to the cuts to our Foreign Aid budget. After much soul searching, my wife and I decided to go anyway.
Having arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I have discovered that there is little in the way of budget, no equipment or resources to deliver this vital training.
I need to raise $50000 to contribute to the purchase of equipment and resources necessary to deliver first aid training, to train trainers to continue the work when my time here is done and to simply live. I receive no salary nor allowances, but this project is of vital importance to these students.
This project will focus on providing top quality first aid training to all students enrolled in Vocational Education and Training courses at PSE. I am already training 197 students from the School of Technology and the School of Hospitality and Tourism. The School of Business students will commence their first aid training in September, 2016, along with the entire Sports Department. The immediate challenge is to meet the training needs of the approximately 1700 students currently enrolled, and then to provide the same training to the annual intake of approximately 400 new students.
For this project to be sustainable into the future, I must also train suitable Khmer staff as First Aid Trainers. This search continues, although my most capable interpreter, Sarourn HUL would make a brilliant Trainer.
These are the children of PSE
There are currently approximately 7000 children supported by PSE through education. Of these, 4000 are in general education; Kindergarten through to high school, 1200 are in remedial classes and 1700 in Vocational Training. There are also 92 supported in Higher Education. More than 3,500 children are also educated within 30 state schools. PSE pays for the cost of the teaching (supplementing the teachers' salaries), uniforms, school materials, healthcare, and sandwiches for some of them, and compensation for the money which they no longer give to their families because of going to school.
Every one of these children come from the poorest backgrounds in Cambodia. Many of these children and their families are so poor that they survived by scavenging food from the garbage dump!
At PSE, we do not want poor training for the poor, but the best for the poorest, because they have only their skills to find employment. We aim to provide the best employment skills that we can for these children. Adding high quality First Aid training to their training curriculum further enhances their employability.
The children themselves recognise that this training goes beyond improving their employment prospects. When I asked them why they would want to learn first aid if they had the opportunity, their answers to that question included: “I will know what to do to help my family”, “I would be able to help my friends”, “I could help my neighbours”, “I would know what to do if I came across an accident”!
These children want to learn these skills; will you help me to provide them by supporting me to live here and continue to train them?
For the past few years, I have been a First Aid Trainer for the Australian Red Cross at Alice Springs in Central Australia.
Last year, I saw a position advertised to go to Cambodia as a volunteer First Aid Trainer with Australian Red Cross to train 1700 disadvantaged Cambodian youths currently in Vocational Training in a variety of trades at Pour un Sourire d'Enfant (PSE) http://pse.ong/ This was to be funded out of the Australian Foreign Aid budget as an AVID project
Unfortunately, just prior to being appointed to the position, the funding for this project was withdrawn due to the cuts to our Foreign Aid budget. After much soul searching, my wife and I decided to go anyway.
Having arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I have discovered that there is little in the way of budget, no equipment or resources to deliver this vital training.
I need to raise $50000 to contribute to the purchase of equipment and resources necessary to deliver first aid training, to train trainers to continue the work when my time here is done and to simply live. I receive no salary nor allowances, but this project is of vital importance to these students.
This project will focus on providing top quality first aid training to all students enrolled in Vocational Education and Training courses at PSE. I am already training 197 students from the School of Technology and the School of Hospitality and Tourism. The School of Business students will commence their first aid training in September, 2016, along with the entire Sports Department. The immediate challenge is to meet the training needs of the approximately 1700 students currently enrolled, and then to provide the same training to the annual intake of approximately 400 new students.
For this project to be sustainable into the future, I must also train suitable Khmer staff as First Aid Trainers. This search continues, although my most capable interpreter, Sarourn HUL would make a brilliant Trainer.
These are the children of PSE
There are currently approximately 7000 children supported by PSE through education. Of these, 4000 are in general education; Kindergarten through to high school, 1200 are in remedial classes and 1700 in Vocational Training. There are also 92 supported in Higher Education. More than 3,500 children are also educated within 30 state schools. PSE pays for the cost of the teaching (supplementing the teachers' salaries), uniforms, school materials, healthcare, and sandwiches for some of them, and compensation for the money which they no longer give to their families because of going to school.
Every one of these children come from the poorest backgrounds in Cambodia. Many of these children and their families are so poor that they survived by scavenging food from the garbage dump!
At PSE, we do not want poor training for the poor, but the best for the poorest, because they have only their skills to find employment. We aim to provide the best employment skills that we can for these children. Adding high quality First Aid training to their training curriculum further enhances their employability.
The children themselves recognise that this training goes beyond improving their employment prospects. When I asked them why they would want to learn first aid if they had the opportunity, their answers to that question included: “I will know what to do to help my family”, “I would be able to help my friends”, “I could help my neighbours”, “I would know what to do if I came across an accident”!
These children want to learn these skills; will you help me to provide them by supporting me to live here and continue to train them?