Volume 1 Issue 9 April 2008 www.discoveringdeafworlds.com
Cambodia Deaf Community:
The Seeds Have Been Planted Imagine yourself, whatever age you are – be it 10, 30 or 50 years old – never fully developing a language to express yourself, never completely understanding the life and people around you. Imagine never having an opportunity to go to school to receive a basic education, not even to read and write. Imagine living in total isolation, unable to effectively communicate, never meeting someone else like you to connect with. Dave Justice (back row, fourth from left) poses with What is your identity? Your family sees you as a DDP participants during a power outage. burden and your government does not support you. You are pushed aside as an annoyance your entire for many. The facts for Cambodia’s unique history belife. Imagine this life with the added stress of poverty. fore 1997 include: Your belongings can fit in a plastic garbage bag, your • NO sign language used tap water is contaminated, city power outages hap• NO schools for deaf people pen twice a day, your family earns enough to eat two • NO deaf organizations or services for deaf or three meals a day, maybe, and your public bus for people transportation is a pickup truck or a moped with a • 98% of deaf people have never met another trailer. deaf person (and even if they met each other, Just a decade ago, this was the reality for deaf peothey would still struggle to communicate withple living in Cambodia, and still remains the reality out a language) Cambodia holds a population of over 13,000,000 people, which means there are about 51,000 deaf and 500,000 hard of hearing people. So what is being done for their communication needs? After two weeks of traveling through Phnom Dave Justice and Christy Smith are travelPenh, Kampot and Siem Reap, we learned about the ing the world to learn and share stories of powerful influence non-governmental organizations empowerment, inspiration, and connection (NGO) have in Cambodia. One such NGO is the between international Deaf communities. Deaf Development Program (DDP) based in the nation’s capitol, Phnom Penh. With a jump-start from Discovering Deaf Worlds (DDW) is an the Finland Association for the Deaf in 1996 and opportunity to give deaf people worldwide ongoing support from Maryknoll, DDP Director a voice. For more information, photos, vidCharles Dittmeier has a vision to change all those eo logs, and newsletter stories, visit previously stated “NOs” to “YESes”! www.discoveringdeafworlds.com.
What is DDW?
CAMBODIA, continued on page 5 April 2008 1