The Finnish Association of the Deaf (FAD) has been a funder of the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme from the very beginning in 1997. Each year a representative of FAD comes to review the plan of action and budget from the previous year and to plan ahead. Ms. Johanna Karinen is now the project coordinator for FAD and she arrived yesterday. Today we began our meetings at the DDP office in Phnom Penh.
The first order of the day was the weekly DDP staff meeting. Most of the staff had met Johanna (pink top) in her previous visits to DDP.Johanna talking at break time with some of the DDP staff.The Finnish Association of the Deaf mostly funds our Deaf Community Development Project in Kampong Cham and all the staff involved in the meetings today are connected with that project.Another meeting today, not connected with the ANM, was with two men from the ASEAN Sports Federation. It was good to see them again and to introduce them to Johanna.
Tuesday
Today was the second day of the Annual Negotiations Meeting and we got into discussion of the logframe analysis and the activity timeline, documents that funders require to insure that their funds are being well spent.
Discussing a logframe analysis at the Annual Negotiations Meeting.Keat Sokly presenting the logframe analysis in the morning session.Soeun, Solydem, and Lika attending their first ANM.Sokly and Johanna enjoying a break on the balcony outside of our fourth-floor meeting room.
Wednesday
Today, the third full day of Johanna Karinen’s visit to DDP, was spent away from the DDP office which was closed for Women’s Day.
Johanna Karinen listening to an audio description at one of the stops on the tour of the Killing Field near Phnom Penh.An encouraging development on this visit to the Killing Field was the presence of school children. It was only in the last few years that the government started teaching about the Khmer Rouge era to students.Eating lunch at the Killing Field with our deaf tuk-tuk driver.Then it was on to the airport where we met Kalle (with black cap), a deaf video man, who will be making seven short videos of DDP and the deaf people of Cambodia.Meri, Kalle’s sign language interpreter for this trip, assists in checking into the hotel.After the new arrivals were settled, we had a preliminary meeting to make sure that the schedule for the next few days was clear.The last official action on the schedule for today was a meeting between Sr. Len Montiel, the Maryknoll Cambodia country representative, and Johanna Karinen.
Thursday
Today, the fourth day of the Annual Negotiations Meeting, wasn’t all spent around the meeting table. A lot of the morning was spent videoing people and places of DDP for seven short videos that FAD is producing about DDP and about FAD’s work here. Then late in the morning and through the afternoon we got back to the table.
Johanna Karinen, Kalle, and Meira, the interpreter, arriving in the DDP limousine in the morning.Kalle got to work right away, assembling his camera and then going out on the street to shoot some environment shots to locate the interviews and descriptions that will appear in his videos.Here is Kalle is checking his camera before shooting inside the DDP office.Keat Sokly is helping Mano to prepare for her presentation. She is part of the Deaf Community Center which is funded by the Finnish Association of the Deaf.During a break, Kalle films Mano in a conversation with Johanna.When it was lunch time the whole meeting crowd went to a restaurant on the corner.After lunch the Kampong Cham staff and the video crew departed for several days of filming in Kampong Cham. Here they coordinate schedules before getting into the van to start the trip.Then it was time for the ANM crew to continue their meetings, focusing on the budget, for the rest of the afternoon.
Friday
Today Johanna Karinen had a series of meetings with individuals but the rest of us were a little freer on this last full day of the Annual Negotiations Meetings with the Finnish Association of the Deaf.
The first meeting of the morning was a short one, just to take care of the loose ends at the end of the week.Later in the day, Johanna met with Charlie Dittmeier, Lika, and with Sopheak (pictured here), the leader of the deaf football league.Maryknoll Cambodia is the official partner of the Finnish Association of the Deaf in Cambodia, and tonight the three Maryknollers working at DDP met with Johanna at her last supper here (Johanna, Karen Bortvedt, Charlie Dittmeier, Russ Brine).
Saturday
Today was Johanna’s final day in Cambodia. She did some work in the morning, went to the Russian Market for gifts for family, and then came to the Deaf Development Programme office where local people deaf people had a morning of activities and chatting. Then she ate lunch with Charlie Dittmeier and Keat Sokly, and then went to the hotel to change clothes and head to the airport.
Johanna with the handicrafts group at the Deaf Community Center.Sopheap (seated) and Mano (behind Sopheap) are staff of the Deaf Community Center. Here Mano fixes Sopheap’s hair.Keat Sokly and Pakhedy playing Cambodian chess while Johanna takes some last photos before she leaves.
Sunday
Kalle returned from Kampong Cham Province yesterday evening and spent today filming with the larger deaf community gathered for football at a sports club and then for socializing at the Deaf Community Center.
In the afternoon today, Kalle, the videographer, first filmed at a football match at a center where the deaf teams often play.Quite a large number of deaf youth came to the Deaf Community Center today, probably partly because Kalle was there.Kalle needs lots of different scenes and interactions for the series of videos he is producing so whenever he sees a good photo op, he grabs his camera and starts recording.Then Kalle prepared for an interview with Sopheak, a leader in organizing the deaf football league. Here he goes over the points he wants to discuss with Sopheak.Finally it was time for the actual interview. Sopheak was using Cambodian Sign Language but the final videos will have Finnish subtitles as well as a Finnish Sign Language interpreter.
