Smiling Gecko Campus

Vocational training at Smiling Gecko is top-notch.
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Their names are Pheara, Vuty, Sopha, Khema and Chanty. When they’re not at the Smiling Gecko Campus, they work as trainers at the ‘National Vocational Institute’ in Battambang Province, a state-run vocational training institution.
Now, the teachers from the north-west of the country are here with us, with the roles reversed. Instead of training young Cambodians, they themselves have returned to the classroom for a nine-week training programme. Although “sitting in a classroom” does not quite capture it. Rather than focusing purely on theory, the five participants are gaining practical, hands-on experience every day. The training covers agriculture (Khema and Chanty), fish farming (Vuthy and Sopha) and carpentry (Pheara). They follow programmes similar to those of our own trainees. Naturally, in a much more condensed form.

They learn how to produce and apply organic fertiliser, how to manage excessively high water temperatures in fish ponds and how to construct solid wooden shelves. This valuable knowledge is then passed on to others through their own teaching, including to people who have lost one or more limbs because of tragic encounters with landmines.

Why are we mentioning this explicitly? Because the exchange programme is a collaboration with MINE-EX, a foundation supported by several Swiss Rotary Clubs. Together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)), MINE-EX operates two rehabilitation centres in Battambang Province for landmine survivors. We believe this partnership is a perfect match.

We are therefore especially pleased that the expertise developed in our specialist workshops is now being shared far beyond the Smiling Gecko Campus.

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