W.I.G. Presentation

The Women’s International Group (WIG) meets every week for communication, socialization, and learning. At their meeting today, the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme was invited to present about the work that we do. Here Maryknoll Lay Missioner Julie Lawler spoke about her personal experience as a teacher in a deaf school in the United States. The gathering was a very pleasant one.

Deaf Day!

Today was the official Deaf Day celebrations and a large number of deaf people from several provinces came together at the DDP office in Phnom Penh for a full day of activities.

In the morning a group of deaf people performed a dance based on the theme of inclusion.
Then there was a food-tasting event, with desserts and snacks and foods from different countries and cultures to give the deaf people a “taste” of things different from what they know in Cambodia.
When I arrived after the morning church service, the staff “helped” me into a Deaf Day T-shirt for picture taking.

Deaf Week Activities

Socials Coffee Day

PPC Bank in Cambodia has established a coffee shop in their headquarters as a social enterprise employing deaf people. Today to promote Deaf Week, they offered a 50% discount on all drinks and we invited our friends and supporters to take advantage of the offer.
One of the deaf staff at Socials Coffee preparing an iced Hazelnut Latte.
Some of the DDP staff gathered at Socials today.

Deaf Week Activities

Crazy Hair Day

The Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme started celebrating Deaf Week today. Our team has proposed a different game or activity for each day for all the students and staff based at our Phnom Penh office. Today was crazy hair day.

A couple of the guys got into the spirit at our Monday morning staff meeting.
Two of our interpreters were not to be outdone, but then they had more to work with. And then there are others who had almost nothing to work with!