Laos Trains Medical Workers to Prepare for SEA Games
By Songrit Pongern Bangkok, Thailand 23/09/2009
Lao authorities set up training programs for a team of over 500 physicians who volunteer to provide their services during the 25th SEA Games that Laos will host from December 9 to December 18.
The Ministry of Public Health launched the training programs earlier this month. The volunteering physicians, who are divided into 10 groups, are undergoing a two-day training course that focuses on enhancing their knowledge and skills in 16 areas such as providing first aids, medical emergency, injuries' evaluation and evacuation of injured athletes or spectators, as well as skills and knowledge in other medical fields, to prepare to efficiently cope with any emergency that might occur during the Games. This training course will continue until early October.
In addition, since the 25th SEA Games will take place at a time when the spread
Dr. Ponmek Daraloy
of the H1NI influenza virus is still prevalent, it is even more vital for Laos - as the host of this important event - to enhance the skills and knowledge of its health workers, so they will be able to perform in a more effective manner than usual. Hence, Dr. Ponemek Dalaloy, Minister of Public Health and Chairman of the 25th SEA Games Sub-Committee on Health and Nutrition, calls on all medical workers participating in this training to perform this duty to the best of their ability during this important occasion.
To help Laos prepare for this SEA Games, Vietnam provided a 4 million dollar grant and a 15 million dollar loan, to be paid back in three years, for the construction of an athletes' village that was handed over to Lao authorities earlier this month. The village will be able to accommodate over 4,000 athletes who will participate in the Games.
Lao officials and soccer team in front of the new stadium
The construction of a new stadium, at KM 16 along Route 13 South in Saythany District, has also been completed with a grant from China totaling more than 100 million dollars in exchange for a 50-year concession on an area of the Thaluang marshland adjacent to the stadium where Chinese investors will develop a new urban center.
