Mr Lim Soksan, a student of the Phnom Penh Journalists' English Typing Centre cheerfully poses in ...

Mr Lim Soksan, a student of the Phnom Penh Journalists' English Typing Centre cheerfully poses in front of the sign advertising the Centre. The centre was established in May 1992 by Australian journalist Sue Downie and Barbara Fitzgerald, the director of Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), the Australian trade union movement's aid agency which focuses on enhancing technical and vocational skills in developing countries. Designed to assist Cambodian journalists, government workers and the disabled with free training in English typing and journalistic skills, the Centre received a major boost in 1991 and 1992 from appeals launched in Canberra, Australia for typewriters and associated equipment, resulting in almost 500 pieces of equipment being donated, many of which were then distributed throughout the rest of Cambodia. Until APHEDA was able to train two additional teachers and a coordinator, the Centre was managed by Lorraine Sanderson, wife of Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) John M Sanderson, the Force Commander of the Military Contingent of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).