Author: Charles Dittmeier

FAD/DPF Visit (Day 6)

Kaisa, the director of the Finnish Association of the Deaf, speaks about future plans.
The Finnish group still working during the break.
A really heavy rainstorm beat down on the metal roof of the meeting room so all the hearing participants gathered at the front of the room, near the interpreters.

FAD/DPF Visit (Day 5d)

After our home visits in the Kampong Cham area, we started our return journey to Phnom Penh. In the middle of the afternoon, we stopped at a roadside stall to get ears of roasted corn.
We made another stop as dusk fell at a famous wat along the highway so the people from Finland could see what the Buddhist wats are like.
This wat is in a beautiful setting around a lake.
Before it got too dark, we made a group photo.
To save some driving time, we took a ferry across the Mekong River. Here Sophy takes photos of a view that most of us almost never see.
The ferries are small, holding only 7 or 8 four-wheeled vehicles. And when the boat arrives at the destination, the vehicles need to back off the boat.

FAD/DPF Visit (Day 5c)

Nearby the community hall where we met the local deaf group is the home and barbershop of one of the barbers we trained at DDP. The certificate on the wall behind him is signed by me.
The second stop after the local group gathering was at the home of the deaf woman on the right, another member of the group. She runs a small convenience shop from her family’s home.
Then we went to the DDP office in Kampong Cham town where our group split into for lunch, on restaurant for the vegetarians and another for the rest of the group.
After lunch we spent ten minutes or so in the DDP office before getting back on the road.
The final stop near the gathering center was at the home of another member who also has a barber shop. He also raises chickens. The hay under the stairs is for cows kept by his parents.

FAD/DPF Visit (Day 5b)

About 7:30 AM, we stopped for breakfast in an area famous for its roasted tarantulas. Here one of the Finnish interpreters is buying one ($1.00 each) for a new taste experience. The rest of us had more common breakfast foods.
About 9:00 AM we arrived at one of the local deaf groups funded by UNDP and were greeted by some of young deaf women from the surrounding area.
We were meeting in a community hall in the village which is also used for Buddhist services.

FAD/DPF Visit (Day 5a)

Today was a field trip to Kampong Cham Province where the Finnish Association of the Deaf has funded our community development work.

We left the Finns’ hotel at 6:00 AM and about an hour later were at the bakery owned by Seanghai, a deaf former student of DDP. He is an example of the opportunity the DDP program offers.
Seanghai (back to camera) explained his work at the bakery.
Sophy, Seanghai’s former teacher, tells him which of the baked goods she wants to try.
Our group all enjoying their baked goods purchases.

FAD/DPF Visit (Day 4)

The day began with the DDP projects reporting on their activities. Here the group is listening to Sophy speaking about education and job training.
The second activity of the day’s agenda was the Finland delegation observing a training session with the DLTP trainees presenting what they have learned. The visitors walked to a different building on the DDP grounds where the training takes place.
After lunch, we took a van to the offices of Caritas Cambodia, the parent organization of DDP which is now the local partner of the Finnish Association of the Deaf.
The final event of the day was a visit to the United Nations Development Program who is a partner with the Deaf Development Programme.

FAD/DPF Visit (Day 3)

Colin Allen explaining his DLTP project.
Discussion of the DLTP.
Anna explaining a project results form.
Sophy briefing deaf people scheduled to meet the monitoring team.
A DDP student talking about life as a young deaf person in Cambodia.
Deaf people talking about their lives as deaf people in Cambodia.

FAD/DPF Visit (Day 1)

Today a delegation from the Finnish Association of the Deaf (FAD) and the Disability Partnership Finland (DPF) arrived in Cambodia for a week-long monitoring visit.

This morning while I was having the mass for the English Catholic Community, our brilliant management team (Soknym, Julie, and Sophy) went to the airport to meet six travelers from Finland.

After their arrival at their hotel, five of the six in the delegation met for more than two hours with Soknym and me and we discussed the general situation of deaf people here in Cambodia.