Meeting Day 2

While Sophy was representing DDP at the UN Human Rights training session in Phnom Penh (yesterday’s post), three others of our staff went to Kampong Cham Province with UNDP to meet with the governor’s office.

Mr. Song Sit from the United Nations Development Program spoke to the group about building up the deaf community in Kampong Cham Province.
Mr. Vanna spoke more about the program as Sreynuch interpreted into Cambodian Sign Language.
Working in small groups was an especially important part of the program because the Kampong Cham deaf group has developed to where they are having substantive discussions.
Another positive development displayed at the meeting was the ability and willingness of deaf persons to speak up for a point of view

Meeting Day

Today was a significant meeting day for the Deaf Development Programme. We were invited to attend a training organized by the UN Human Rights office in Phnom Penh, and we were requested to meet with UNDP and the governor’s office in Kampong Cham Province.

Here Sophy (with the microphone), part of our DDP management team, answers questions about deaf people’s access to the judicial system at the UN Human Rights training in Phnom Penh.

Barefoot Buddhist

This is something you don’t often see now–a barefoot monk on his begging rounds in the morning. It used to be that all monks were barefoot as they went through the neighborhoods but now they almost all wear sandals. I don’t know if it’s modernization or maybe a response to paving the streets. When I came there were only five paved streets in Phnom Penh but the photo shows what the city is like now.

Musica Felice (October)

Twice a year, Musica Felice, a musical and choral group founded and directed by Ms. Miwako Fujiwara, presents benefit concerts at the Sofitel, a 5-star hotel in Phnom Penh. This October performance benefited the Deaf Development Programme.

We arrived early and it gave our students some time to explore and look around the lobby of the grand ballroom. For almost all of them, it was their first experience in a five-star hotel.
We had reserved seats at the front where the deaf people had good visibility, and when we gathered at our seats, Miwako came over to welcome us!
The grand ballroom just before the lights dimmed for the opening.
At the intermission Miwako had arranged for each of the students to get a croissant or other pastry.
This concert didn’t have the videos and visual effects of some previous performances, but in the second half, featuring music from Les Miserables, the singers wore costumes and staged some of the settings for the lyrics.
At the end all our students marched up to the stage as part of a finale, and then they gathered for photos with the cast and with Miwako. The deaf students really couldn’t enjoy the music but it was a real learning experience for them.

End of Session 1

Today is the last working day of the Bishops Synod in Rome. Here at the end of the first month-long session are Bishop Kike (L) from Battambang in Cambodia and Fr. James Martin, SJ (R) whom I met at Maryknoll, NY, and a third unknown priest.

Getting ready….

On Sunday, Musica Felice will have a charity concert at the Sofitel Hotel in Phnom Penh to benefit the Deaf Development Programme. Our deaf students will have a walk-on role at the end and today our teachers handed out T-shirts they will wear. Our special thanks to Ms. Miwako Fujiwara, the organizer of Musica Felice, who also provided the shirts!

The students suffer

[From the Khmer Times}

Education is Cambodia in normal times is generally uneven and inadequate, and Covid made the situation worse. The schools were closed a year and a half and an attempt at online learning was not effective. A good number of students don’t have electricity much less a computer or smartphone or wi-fi connection.

The current school year began late, in January, 2023, and it was anticipated that the new year would start in January, 2024. Schools were preparing for that schedule. Suddenly the government announces this school year will end three weeks into November and the new school year starts December 1st.

This throws the planning of NGOs and groups supporting education really out of whack. Maryknoll has a month-long program to help older students catch up and adjust to the curriculum after missing so much school but now that has to be dropped. The kids suffer….