Category: Deaf

People and activities in the Cambodian deaf world

Women’s Day Preparation

Saturday is DDP’s celebration of Women’s Day and our staff has been busy making preparations. Here Mano checks the wording on a display.
Sophy asks about the meaning of the words on this display which will be photo backdrop.
Some students get into the act also, putting together another display in their classroom.

DLTP Graduation

26 February was the official end of Phase 4 of the Deaf Leadership Training Program and there was a graduation celebration and lunch together for the DLTP team and their trainees and the DDP management team.

Early in the morning, at DDP, the DLTP team prepared materials for the end of this phase of their training.

At a restaurant, Colin Allen, the advisor/trainer for DLTP, welcomed all the participants and noted their commitment and work that has brought them to this point.
Then after the DLTP participants received their certificates, there was a group photo.

ANM Day 5 (February 21) #2

Today’s meeting focused on finalizing a work plan for 2026-2029. Here Vanna offers his comments.
We have frequent breaks for the benefit of the sign language interpreters. Interpreting is very fatiguing because of the concentration required. Here Julie Lawler talks with the DLTP deaf staff during a break.
At the afternoon break, the students brought out a birthday cake and fruit they had prepared for me for my birthday tomorrow. The best part of my job is interacting with the students but I don’t have much opportunity for that now.
After the cake, I said goodbye to Katarina and Rebecca and then headed for the airport. the Phnom Penh traffic is terrible now and it took an hour to go the four or five miles. These are some meat vendors along one of the major streets near the airport.

ANM Day 5 (February 21) #1

I’m in Bangkok, just arrived, for a trip to get a new visa. We had ANM meetings all day in Phnom Penh and then at the afternoon break, the DDP students brought out a cake to celebrate my birthday. These young people are such a delight! Then I hastened to the airport to fly to Thailand.

More tomorrow…

ANM Day 4 (February 20)

Katarina and Soknym check their notes before the morning session begins.
One of the trainees offers her thoughts in the discussion.
Colin presents some notes on the work plan for 2026.
A tradition at these ANMs is to have a meal together, getting away from the meeting room for a few hours.

ANM Day 3 (February 19)

The morning session was a meeting between Katarina from FAD and all the deaf participants in the Deaf Leadership Training Program, without any management present.
The meeting is complex because we are using English, Khmer, Cambodian Sign Language, and Australian Sign Language. Here Rebecca (L, the Auslan interpreter), shows her sign language name to Srey Mom (the CSL interpreter), and Anh (the Khmer-English voice interpreter).
DLTP and DDP staff setting up the projector before the meeting began.
Soknym, the DDP director, reported on the progress negotiating an agreement with the U.N. Development Program.
Later, Colin spoke about the action plan for DLTP for 2025.

ANM Day 2 (February 18)

ANM stands for Annual Negotiations Meeting.

The Finnish Association of the Deaf funds our project to establish a national association of the deaf and also some community development activities. Here Sophary (standing, left) informs the group about the activities since last year in the Phnom Penh area.

At the break, Julie Lawler (L), a Maryknoll Lay Missioner working in the Education Project, speaks with Katarina. Her suitcase had still not arrived!

Next on the program was a report on community development in the Kampong Cham area, given by Solydem (L), the center manager there.

ANM Day 1 (February 17)

Every year (when there’s no Covid!), our project coordinator from the Finnish Association of the Deaf comes for a week of meetings to review the past year and plan and budget for the coming year. Today Katarina, from FAD, arrived in Phnom Penh–minus her luggage–and within two hours was leading an opening meeting with us at the DDP office.

Deaf Awareness at U.S. Embassy

Today a team of young deaf people from the Deaf Leadership Training Project offered a deaf awareness training to some staff of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. It took a lot of organization and planning but turned out quite well.

Phones and photos were not permitted inside the embassy but afterwards we took a photo outside the embassy. As mark of appreciation, the embassy staff gave each of the DDP team a cap with an American flag and the words “U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh.”