Category: Deaf

People and activities in the Cambodian deaf world

No more mud

This is the boys’ hostel at DDP House. Before there was broken pavement, poor drainage, and mud in the yard area. Now there’s new layer of cement.

Lower the ceiling?

On an inspection visit of our hostel for deaf students, a team from the Ministry of Social Affairs didn’t like that there was no ceiling above the dorm rooms but rather open space up to the metal roof twenty feet above. From my understanding, that design allows the hot air to rise well above the living area and also keeps the hot roof above the humans. They wanted a suspended ceiling, though, so now they are getting one. It will be interesting to learn from the students, when they return, if the rooms are now hotter or cooler.

Surprise!

I was rather surprised today to see a collage of photos of priests who are deaf and who work with the Catholic deaf community–and to find my picture in the latter category. I’m not sure who created this.

Regreening…

A really popular corner of our DDP compound is this volleyball court. In normal times, it gets a lot of use and the grass is worn away.
But the times are not normal now and with all our students at home in the provinces, the court is growing a new cover of grass.

At long last…

Today Sau Soknym was finally able to pick up the new three-year MOU for DDP with the Ministry of Social Affairs. Those things take an incredibly long time, so long this time that the minister questioned his staff about it.

Post-Lockdown Day 2

Today, on behalf of the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme, Sr. Regina Pellicore signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Social Affairs to renew DDP’s permission to work in Cambodia for another three years
In previous years MOSVY would arrange a small celebration for the signing of MOUs, but this year, because of Covid-19, three ministry officials met with Sr. Regina and Mr. Sau Soknym (far left), the program manager of DDP.

New “old” staff

Today Nob Samnang (L) came to her first day of work at DDP as administrator. On the front porch to welcome her were (L to R): Russ Brine, Sau Soknym, and Thuch Sophy.
Later Russ (L) and Soknym began an orientation for Samnang. She actually worked for DDP before but left to get married and move to Battambang. Now back in Phnom Penh, she heard that the administrator position was open and we were pleased to be able to hire someone with both experience and sign language.

Online Learning

Our Education Project classes have been canceled most of 2020 and 2021 but we’re still trying to provide some learning experiences for our deaf students. Here some of our staff make short video lessons to post on a special Facebook page for the students to study at home.

New Manager

Today the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme welcomed a new program manager, Mr. Sau Soknym. Soknym had previously worked for the Maryknoll Seedling program until it closed so he is well known to many of the DDP staff and the Maryknoll community. He will be in charge of managing the day-to-day operations of the DDP Administration and the five projects. Welcome, Soknym!