5-6 March 2004
Deaf Class in Kampot, Cambodia |
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The Cambodian government agreed to let us put a deaf class into a government school, but the school building had no toilets or electricity! The hearing students only go to school 3½ hours a day and they managed without toilets. The deaf students go from 7:30 AM to noon and from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, however, so toilets became more of a necessity. St. Francis de Sales Parish in Purcellville, Virgina provided a very generous donation to the Deaf Development Program, and we were able to build what is basically a nice outhouse inside the ruins of what used to be an assembly hall in the school. | |
The Kampot school building also had no electricity, and sitting through full school days in Cambodia's heat without fans is real discomfort. We were able to use some of the money from Fr. Jerry Timmel and former seminary classmates in Louisville to buy a generator and two fans for this school and also for another of our classrooms in another province. Here the teachers siphon gasoline into the generator to prepare for the afternoon classes. | |
These are the two fans used in the deaf classroom in Kampot. They were purchased with donations from priests and former seminary classmates in Louisville. On our inspection visit, we noticed that two fans don't really cover the whole classroom. The teachers don't feel them at all, so we may need to buy a third fan. But that depends if the generator has enough output. The teachers are saying that in the rainy season, when they have to close the shutters, they can manage without the fans but will then need lights in the classroom. | |
A fact of life in Cambodia is that an NGO (non-government organization) can set up a wonderful program, but it won't be utilized if people cannot afford transportation to come. We found that was true with our deaf program in five provinces, so we bought 25 bicycles for students at the end of last year. These young women are riding two of them. Now our teachers in Kampot tell us they need two more bicycles for other students who are not attending because of distance. |