Nonviolence Prevention in Cambodia’s Deaf Community

MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Spring 2026

Julie Lawler, Cambodia

Nonviolence prevention in Cambodia’s Deaf community

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
– French Novelist Marcel Proust

In 2022 Maryknoll Lay Missioners adopted nonviolence as a guiding focus to how we approach mission in the 21st century. This focus has led me to see my experiences at the Deaf Development Programme (DDP) through that new lens of nonviolence (and how we work to prevent violence, to intervene in it, and to bring about reconciliation and restoration in the wake of violence).

With my fellow Maryknoll lay missioners, we did a situational analysis of our local reality and noted that Cambodia has a high level of domestic and gender-based violence and widespread discrimination of people with disabilities. Becoming more aware of these realities has led me to look for ways to address nonviolence at DDP with training or activities that relate to trauma healing, conflict resolution and dialogue to solve problems.

The following are some prevention approaches that we are implementing at DDP that support nonviolent living. This focus is impacting deaf individuals at DDP every day in how they relate to their families, friends and people in society.

1. Education and language: At DDP, education allows deaf students to access Cambodian Sign Language (CSL), which is their natural first language.
2. Communication: Once students learn that language, they can more clearly communicate their feelings, relate to others and listen to the needs or wants of others and gain an understanding from social interactions. Deaf students at DDP come from homes where they did not communicate with family members using any formal language but rather informal gestures called “home signs” that were created out of the need to say basic commands like go, come, get, leave, eat, sleep. Now, using CSL, they can communicate more freely and begin to engage in more social and academic settings.
3. Dealing with anger and strong emotions: When a deaf student has language, they can finally express their feelings (happy, sad, hungry, excited, disappointed, etc). DDP students have stored up many life experiences but have not had language to fully express themselves, so naturally our deaf students at DDP deal with anger and strong emotions. Learning CSL, interacting with other deaf peers and deaf role models, and living in an environment with consistent support, gives the deaf students time to grow into their new “deaf” identity.

   

   Seangleng is in the classroom teaching her students new vocabulary using CSL to sign the new word plus she shows a real picture of word, CSL signs drawing, and written Khmer Word.

Teacher spotlight:

Nguon Seangleng is a second-year teacher at DDP, one of four teachers working at DDP during this program year. Seangleng is a deaf teacher who brings her own lived experience as a deaf person to her role as classroom teacher, which greatly enriches her teaching approach and her ability to adapt to each students’ individual needs.

Over the past two years, I have worked with Seangleng as an educational advisor, and I have observed that she is really good at connecting, relating and working with her students. She uses teaching strategies that benefit deaf learners: acting out, role playing, drawing pictures and/or using pictures to make meaning to new words in sign language.

Seangleng says, “I want my students to make progress and improve, so that is why I include pictures and role playing with sign language. I teach my students, who are just learning how to use sign language, the importance of eye contact, sign formation and signing space.”

Over these past two years, Seangleng has seen the benefit of being patient with her students, starting each day with a positive attitude and being determined to repeat lessons that will help her students succeed.

Seangleng recalls an experience she recently had with a new student from the Kampong Chhnang Province. She says, “After 4 years of studying in grades 1-4, the student dropped out of school. He just recently came to DDP at age 16. He only knows written Khmer and the Khmer alphabet. I had to teach him the alphabet in Cambodian Sign Language and give him a paper copy to help him study at night. He spent a few days memorizing the handshapes and hand movements so that he can spell words now in written Khmer and CSL.”

Please consider supporting my mission work at the Deaf Development Programme with a donation through the link below.

I invite you to walk with me as a “COMPANION IN MISSION.” Companions in Mission are friends and generous donors who give financial gifts on a regular (usually monthly) basis. For more information, visit Become a Companion in Mission. Thank you so much for your generosity!