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People and activities in the Cambodian deaf world
Today the choral group Musica Felice presented their summer concert. Many of their members are from the English Catholic community and a special addition to this program was blind and deaf young people, including deaf students from the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme. Click here to see pictures from the performance.
Click here for more pictures of the forest, cabins, and activities of the deaf youth camp in Preah Vihear Province.
We have a youth camp each year as part of our program with the Finnish Association of the Deaf to train deaf leaders. Click here to see our trip to this year’s camp site and our arrival.
Our teachers in all our classroom were in Phnom Penh this past week for a week of teacher training, part of the long break the Education Project has every year at the time of the Khmer New Year. On this day the power was off so the teachers are outside but the lack of electricity didn’t matter too much because they were learning new Cambodian signs from one of our deaf sign language teachers.
After getting each of DDP’s projects assigned to an area of the new building, we have been focusing on getting the building renovated so that the projects can work better. Because electricity has been very expensive in Cambodia and people were used to living without it, there is little efficient wiring and lighting in Cambodian buildings. Especially at the new DDP, the building was really dark. Now our contractor is just about finished replacing all very small fluorescent lights with new and much brighter LED lighting fixtures.
We’re still moving in at our new DDP office in Boeung Tum Pun. Everything–all the furniture, filing cabinets, desks and tables and chairs, etc.—has been moved from the old building, but we’re still adding more lights, unpacking boxes, and utilizing new spaces. Today the Year 2 students were cleaning up the new computer lab after workmen finishing installing the new lights and fans.
Korea Telecom sponsored a center for Cambodian deaf children to receive a medical device called a cochlear implant to help them hear some sounds by bypassing the part of their ear that does not work. Click here to see photos from the opening of the center.
This week saw the launch of the Australia Cambodia Cooperation for Equitable and Sustainable Services (ACCESS) to which the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme was invited.
On this last day of the ANM, we had a blessing ceremony to pray in the Buddhist and Christian traditions for protection for the students and staff of DDP and for a good learning and working environment. Click here to see some photos from the blessing ceremonies.