Dr Peter Carey

Peter Carey has made an exceptional contribution in co-founding the Cambodia Trust and leading its expansion across Cambodia into Timor Leste, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, making a positive impact on the lives of over 30,000 landmine survivors and other disadvantaged disabled people.

Under Peter’s leadership as co-founder, Chair, Deputy Chair and now Project Director for Indonesia,, the Cambodia Trust has established services and training programmes in 4 developing countries. Peter has worked ‘on the ground’ in 2 countries recovering from conflict (Cambodia, Timor Leste), to establish rehabilitation centres for disabled people and to train local staff, bringing government and NGO partners on board and building local ownership for each project.

Building local capacity is part of Peter’s vision: Trust projects must be sustainable and eventually handed over to local managers and government. In Cambodia, Peter recognised local specialists must be trained in order to make rehabilitation services sustainable and to reduce reliance on expatriate expertise. As Chair of the Cambodia Trust, he facilitated the foundation of the Cambodian School of Prosthetics and Orthotics (CSPO), a training centre where students from Cambodia and across the developing world train to prescribe and fit prosthetic limbs and braces.

The results and impact have been enormous: 122 students have graduated from CSPO, including enough Cambodians to staff all the rehabilitation centres in Cambodia. Around 30,500 devices are being fitted by CSPO graduates annually, enabling 1,000’s of landmine survivors and other disabled people to gain self-sufficiency. Over 80% of children receiving rehabilitation at the centres go on to start school once their mobility is improved; over 230 disabled children receive the support they need to attend school every year; around 150 disabled adults a year are assisted to start vocational training or on-the-job training, with 80% accessing work thereafter; 612 adults have received start-up support to establish small businesses; 9 former CSPO students have graduated with Bachelor’s degrees, enabling a phasing out of expatriate staff at CSPO as Cambodians qualify as lecturers and leaders.

CSPO has also trained prosthetist-orthotists from Afghanistan, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Timor Leste, Georgia, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Under Peter’s leadership, the Trust has replicated its Cambodian model, establishing the Sri Lanka School of Prosthetics & Orthotics; and exported its rehabilitation services to Timor Leste, setting up the country’s first rehabilitation centre for disabled people and training local staff. Peter has recently moved to Jakarta where he is facilitating the establishment of Indonesia’s first internationally-recognised P&O school – replicating the Trust’s training schools for prosthetics and orthotics in Phnom Penh and Colombo.

“I have seen for myself the impact of our programs on the lives of landmine victims and people affected by conditions such as polio, leprosy, cerebral palsy and club foot ... Peter’s vision, determination and creativity have resulted in so many disabled people being empowered to live independent lives.”

Peter V Darrow, Chair, Cambodia Trust

“I was one of the first students of [CSPO] Because of his vision to train local staff...10 years later, Peter’s focus on training local staff has been very successful. I am now Rehabilitation Programme Manager, and all our staff are now Cambodian. This means our projects are technically and managerially sustainable. This is a big step forward for our country and for the disabled population of Cambodia - including 43,000 landmine survivors and 50,000 people affected by polio.”

Prum Sovann, Rehabilitation Programme Manager

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