CSPO - Background

CSPO was established in 1994 in Phnom Penh to train Cambodian prosthetist-orthotists. During the Khmer Rouge regime, most of Cambodia’s educated and skilled people were murdered, fled the country or died from starvation or hard labour. The training of local specialists was vital for the provision and sustainability of the rehabilitation services needed by the thousands of landmine survivors and other persons with disabilities in the country. When we opened our first rehabilitation centre in Phnom Penh in 1992, there was not a single Cambodian prosthetist-orthotist trained to international standards.

Through our focus on building local capacity, CSPO has now trained enough Cambodian prosthetist-orthotists to staff all the rehabilitation centres across the country. All prosthetic and orthotic devices fitted in Cambodia are fitted by local specialists, reducing the need for expatriate expertise.

CSPO continues to train Cambodian students to ensure a steady supply of new graduates, as more experienced staff move on to management and teaching roles.

Regional role

In 1998 CSPO accepted the first international student from Lao PDR and during the following years more international students joined the school. Today CSPO is not only meeting the needs of people with disability in Cambodia but also the Asia/Pacific region and beyond, with a student body representing 15 different countries.

CSPO currently has students from Cambodia, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Iraq, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Timor Leste.

For a number of years CSPO has facilitated APOS - a collaborative programme between prosthetics/orthotics schools with funding provided by the Nippon Foundation of Japan. APOS aims to develop the capacity of the human resources within prosthetics/orthotics institutes and to build international networks that improve the quality of prosthetics/orthotics education and services. Read more

Inclusion

CSPO encourages women to train in prosthetics and orthotics. Female prosthetist-orthotists are vital to ensure that women with disabilities receive rehabilitation services. Similarly, CSPO encourages the enrolment of persons with disability into the training programme. CSPO currently has 45 students, including 18 women and seven persons with disabilities.

Former CSPO student Ros Thyda at an upper limb training seminar

Multi-cultural environment

CSPO is a regional school with students and lecturers from many different nations. CSPO exposes students to a multicultural learning environment. They learn how to work with people from different cultures, supporting each another in their education and in their daily lives. This environment encourages inclusion of issues of gender, culture and disability.