Our third and last stop this trip was in Tbong Khmum Province, a good drive from Kampong Cham city. We had another delightful group of young deaf people to work with.
Deaf people seldom get to tell their story or talk about themselves in Cambodia. They cannot speak to their families because the families don’t know sign language–and the deaf people here are themselves just learning sign language. When we get together like this, we have some topic to talk about so that everyone can speak up.
Deaf people around the world are isolated, left out of the flow of ordinary life, and so even a simple gathering like these visits is interesting and engaging.
A group photo with the Tbong Khmum deaf people and the DDP staff from Kampong Cham.
Parents, grandparents, neighbors, and passersby were on the sidelines of our gathering and we included them in another photo. We want them to feel their deaf children are part of the family and are valuable and to be respected.
This young deaf woman has a hair and beauty salon where we had our meeting, and one of our Kampong Cham staff got her hair trimmed before we left.
