Camdodia's Deaf Development Program — James Wasserman visuals

Kao Sen, before 2011 he started studying at basic education. He went on to receive vocational training in the barber training program. He has since left that vocation because business was not good. He now works odd jobs and helps on his family farm. He also has a deaf sister who lives and works in Kampot, as well.

Kop is a barber training graduate from DDP, he has been operating his own barber shop since 2014. 37 yrs old. Before opening his shop, Kop attended the DDP education program in Kampot and vocational training in Phnom Penh. He lives with his mother and siblings, as well as a number of nieces and nephews.

Basic Education students in Kampot, Cambodia. Each student is showing their name sign in front of their classroom. Right to left: Yem Sreynuan, Khoeum Pheanh, Min Chay, Chhoeul Mom (2nd year Basic Education Student, all other are 1st year students), Komg Sreypov

Left: Yem Sreynoeun (yr.1) Right Tho Savan (Yr. 2)

Yem Sreynoeun (yr.1)

Ven Sopheak Teacher for year 1 Basic Education in Kampot. Ms. Ven, like all the DDP basic ed teachers, is a teacher under Cambodia’s ministry of education. DDP provides additional training and an additional stipend to all of our teachers. They learn how to work with the deaf and provide deaf-centric education, which includes the use of Cambodian Sign Language.

Two second year students at DDP's regional school. The kids are playing an educational game.

Leav Om (Orange Shirt) Chu Sreykuy (White shirt) both are in their second year of basic education in Kampot province. They are celebrating a soccer goal in a friendly match between the boys and girls at the Kampot DDP House. DDP house is a hostel for DDP basic education students who live outside the city of Kampot but wish to study in the Basic Education project.

Is a 23 year old woman named Nena. She lives in rural Cambodia outside the city of Kampot. She lives with her mother and son. Having never participated in formal education where she could learn Cambodian Sign Language, Nena relies on gestures to communicate with her mother. Nena spends the day caring for her son and helping her mother with chores.

Orng Chea and her sister in the house that DDP helped to construct. Orng Chea is hard of hearing. These sisters lost their parents to illness. When our outreach team met them, while seeking out future participants for the basic education project, they were living in a ramshackle, dilapidated shack. Sopheak, the sign language interpreter in Kampot, sought out assistance for the sisters through another non-profit organization that helps to providing housing to those most in need.

Yen Sreymom, 24 Sreymom’s parents have passed away and she lives alone with her son. She has siblings who work outside of Kampot, her province. The neighbors do their best to help her when she needs assistance. She has not yet participated in any education program and communicates using simple gestures.

Two students at DDP's school in Phnom Penh. Cambodia.

Sopor Lay (middle) a graduate of DDP's program is now a teacher at their Phnom Penh center.

Deaf students at the barber vocational school located in the bottom floor of DDP's Phnom Penh center. Local people often use the services of the barbers at the training center which doubles as a barbershop.

Teachers, translators, linguists from DDP and Krousar Thmey working to create Cambodian Sign Language.. On the right is Sam Ath Heang who has worked with DDP since its founding and is responible for drawing the pictures and gestures that will later define how to make a newly constructed sign.

Korn Maly is hearing and has worked as an interpreter for seven years. She started working on the research for Cambodian Sign Language in 2014 as the coordinator for the CSL committee. She now serves as the interpreting project manager.

Sam Ath Heang's hands at a language creation session where Cambodian Sign Langauge is being created on a daily basis. Once there is agreement between the participants ,Sam Ath draws the gestures on paper. Later the drawing will be converted to a digital illustration.

Cambodia’s Deaf Development Programme

My visit to Cambodia’s Deaf Development Programme

If you were to walk in off the street into one of Deaf Development Programme’s (DDP) classrooms you wouldn’t be too surprised. You’d see enthusiastic teenagers learning to read, do math and work together. What you wouldn’t realize, is that deaf kids until 18 years ago were not included in the Cambodia’s education system and were seen as burdens with no role in their society. They were isolated and had no way to communicate with their own families let alone the outside world. DDP was created in 2001 by Charlie Dittmeier ,who as catholic priest in Louisville, Ky was already working with its deaf community. He understood the huge need for an organization that could provide education, training and support to large community that was shut out of a meaningful role in society.

Thankfully, I heard about DDP and asked Charlie if I could document it’s work. I was invited to visit their programs in Phnom Penh and Kampot. The Kampot program is a regional center that provides educational and vocational training. In addition, its outreach workers go out into rural areas to both locate potential candidates for its regional school as well as help deaf villagers who might have other needs.

These students are not just immersed in a learning environment but are surrounded, very likely for the first time, by friends and teachers that appreciated the totality of who they are. I can easily imagine what their lives might have been like without this program. In fact, I was able to travel to a few outlying rural areas where the kids or young adults were not able to participate in the regional “away from home” schooling and training. These deaf youth, who who might have some support from their family are still left with only the most rudimentary gestures to communicate with.

DDP actively seeks out deaf kids and young adults, connecting them into a supportive network. Even in the case of Yen Srey Mom(see photo), who lives alone with her toddler son and can’t participate in organized educational programs, DDP makes it a priority to make sure she and her son have access to whatever services the local government can provide.

Prior to DDP and another organization, Krousar Thmey, who focus on education for younger deaf children, there simply was no means for deaf Cambodians to communicate with society. The deaf were not brought into the education system to learn either sign language or reading. Teachers and linguists from both organizations gather at DDP’s offices in Phnom Penh to literally create language. The sign language version of the dictionary is literally being developed and formalized in to Cambodian Sign Language on a daily basis. It was fascinating to watch and document this process.

For more details about the people in my photographs please see the captions. For more information about DDP, please visit their website. http://www.ddp-cambodia.org