Interviews with Deaf People
June, 2003
| The Maryknoll Deaf Development Program teaches sign language and literacy to deaf people in Phnom Penh and four provinces. As we seek to expand both the number of deaf people we are reaching and the number of programs we can offer, we are making field trips to contact and interview deaf people of all ages to find out where they are and what they want. A major reason for our trip to Svay Rieng was to interview as many deaf people as possible. |
 We started the interviews with our own students in our deaf class in the government school. Notice the condition of this "classroom" which is more like an old barn. The young woman is in her thirties, one of the older pupils in the class. None have ever attended school before. |
 This teen-age girl (on blue chair) was interviewed in the town market. For many people in Asia, there is little understanding of the concept of privacy. They never experience it and it isn't a value for them. After this interview, I suggested to our staff that they needed to find a less public place for the remaining interviews. |
 I don't blame the local people for coming to watch the interview. It's probably the most exciting thing to happen in weeks. But we tried to offer a little more privacy. This picture shows a house where we interviewed two little deaf boys. Still we couldn't keep all the crowd out! |
 We found this young deaf woman on a small farm outside the provincial town. She hadn't had much contact with any deaf people and was suspicious of us and not very happy that we had come to her house to interview her. But her father went out and picked five mangoes off their tree to give us as we left! |
 These are five deaf children brought by their parents from small villages quite far from town. One of the men in the town volunteered to ride out to contact these families or we would never have known about them. The parents were so happy that there might be a possibility of some help for their children. I just hope we can provide it. |