The government provides this classroom in a typical Ministry of Education facility and the Deaf Development Program provides everything else: the students, the teachers, the desks, fans, electricity, and the toilet. Our teachers are not government certified, however, because the Ministry of Education will not allow anyone with a disability to study to become a teacher. Their reason? The students might be "frightened" by someone with a disability!
The deaf kids want to be students just like the hearing students in the other classes so we start and end the day with the national anthem, just as the other kids do. The only difference is that our students sign it, instead of standing at attention while a screechy, rough tape is played over a tape recorder.
These students come from near and far around Kampot city, at least as far as they can travel with bicycles. DDP provided five bicycles for students beyond walking distance and we are being asked for two more. One older woman travels to school by boat from a remote village. The normal school uniform is a white shirt and blue pants or skirt but many of the students can't afford that.
Our school day is from 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM. The hearing students attend only 3½ hours a day so our students get double time. They are anxious to have it because they have never had the opportunity for schooling before. Here they start heading home at the end of the day.
After most of the students had left, the hearing teacher, Ketya (left), and the deaf teacher, Bun Chann (right), talk with some older students with Liza Clews (second left), program adviser from Phnom Penh, and Phally, Bun Chann's wife and herself a student.
While Liza Clews and Charlie Dittmeier were observing the classroom and interacting with the students during the day, the DDP Program Manager Neang Putheara (left) and the DDP Teacher Team Leader Ouk Chanvirak met with the provincial education officer at his office to discuss DDP's work in Kampot.