University of Queensland students have built an outdoor play area to help disabled children in Vietnam enhance their motor skills.
The team of students and staff from UQ’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences has raised funds to create a grassed area at The Futures School in Hue, Vietnam.
Head of the School Professor Louise Hickson said students on clinical placement at the school were concerned that its outdoor area was unsafe.
“It was filled with dirt and rocks and was not conducive to safe outside activities and play for children with complex needs,” Professor Hickson said.
“Students and staff worked with the school and the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy Office of Genetic Counselling and Disabled Children to install AstroTurf, providing a soft surface for safe play and a dedicated area for the children to develop gross motor skills.
The team of six students, led by Clinical Educators Teresa Quinlan and Allison Mandrusiak, spent four weeks at the Hue school on an interprofessional intercultural placement program.
Another six students and a clinical educator will complete a four-week placement in Timor Leste in partnership with Antipodeans Abroad at the end of June.
“These placements are an opportunity to support our future health professionals to work in teams with people of different cultures, while providing much-needed support to these communities,” Professor Hickson said.
“We are building a workforce of health and rehabilitation professionals who have a good understanding of global health services and an awareness of the impact that they, as health professionals, can have in these communities.”
MEDIA: Helen Burdon, 0142 744 437, 3365 7436, h.burdon@uq.edu.au
