Championing Child Safety in Cambodia:
Jennifer’s Work with Inspire
At Inspire, we believe that every child has the right to feel safe, protected, and respected, no matter where they live. That’s why we’re proud to be working with Jennifer Ribarovski, a leading expert in Australian early childhood education law and regulation, to bring meaningful, high-impact child safeguarding training to Cambodia.
In Australia, child protection training is mandatory for the “Responsible Person” in a service, but the majority of frontline educators often miss out on critical safeguarding knowledge. In Cambodia, the challenge is even greater, with no existing legislation currently regulating child safety in the early childhood sector. This leaves a significant gap in knowledge, practice, and accountability, putting children at risk and fuelling damaging public mistrust, highlighted in the recent death of a child who was behind the school bus.
Jennifer brings decades of experience in Australian legal and compliance frameworks to this issue. But rather than replicating dry, checkbox-style training, she’s redesigned the material from the ground up to be relevant, engaging, and practical for the Cambodian context.
Her approach is simple but powerful:
Strip away the “blah blah”: Too many safeguarding sessions are filled with jargon and abstract policies. Jennifer’s work focuses on real-world application, equipping every educator-not just those in leadership-with the tools to act confidently and appropriately.
Contextualised for Cambodia: Without a formal legal structure in place, Cambodia is a blank slate. This allows Jennifer to develop best-practice training from the first principle, grounded in Australian standards but adapted to local culture and realities.
Frontline focused: All educators in Inspire schools will complete this program, not just management-because safety starts in the classroom, where the daily interactions with children happen.
Child-centred, proactive, and preventative: The training is built on early intervention, respectful relationships, and recognising the signs of concern, empowering educators to take action before harm occurs.
Jennifer’s Child Safeguarding Plan, developed in close collaboration with the Inspire leadership team, lays the foundation for a new standard of care in Cambodia’s early education sector. It includes:
A tiered training model to suit varying educator roles and levels of experience
A strong focus on role clarity, boundaries, supervision, and reporting
Guidance for embedding safeguarding in day-to-day school culture
Resources to engage families and build a culture of trust and transparency
At Inspire, we don’t wait for laws to force us to do the right thing. We lead with integrity. Jennifer’s safeguarding program is another example of our commitment to providing Australian-quality early education, where children are not only learning, but thriving in a safe and nurturing environment.