Taco-Cat, teasing, and togetherness

MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Summer 2025

Julie Lawler, Cambodia

A deaf volunteer guides students through bracelet-making, helping them turn threads into colorful expressions of creativity and friendship.

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA—The Deaf Development Programme (DDP), where I serve as an education advisor, strives to empower deaf people, develop their education and employment, and raise awareness and understanding of deafness and deaf people. It’s also a place where we play games as a community to laugh and compete and enjoy life together.

At 4 p.m., the students leave the classroom and walk a short distance to their hostel accommodations that are located inside the property of DDP. They get to change into their comfortable clothes to hangout, workout, and be free after a full day of classes.

Deaf volunteer SreyRoth shares a joyful moment on the jump rope—proving that mentorship often begins with play.

Two deaf volunteers and I supervise the afterschool program. We give the students a choice to play card games like Taco-Cat-Goat-Cheese-Pizza or Phase 10, exercise by jumping rope or lifting weights, play badminton and soccer, participate in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities, or learn a craft like crocheting or bracelet-making.

There is a lot of laughter, jokes, and teasing, which brings them back day after day looking for more.

Our afterschool program started in February once the school year started and the students were familiar with their school routine and responsibilities.

I felt that starting this program was a good chance for the two deaf volunteers to share their gifts and earn a small wage to support their transportation to and from DDP—but most important, to mentor young deaf adults.

The two deaf volunteers have experienced life like the students have, which inspires them to give back knowing they need encouragement, advice, and a shoulder to lean on.

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it – Thich Nhat Hanh

DDP serves 30-40 students who are deaf (between the ages of 16 – 30 years old), and this afterschool program keeps them out of trouble and gives them a chance to build relationships with friends, develop their fluency in Cambodian Sign Language, and have structure in their free time.

In the past four months, I have felt a sense of peace and have enjoyed interacting with the students for these two hours each day during the week. I can feel that our presence, time, and openness to talk with them is what is needed the most. I laugh and engage with the students, listen to their stories, watch their teasing of each other, and catch up with what is going on in their lives: how is their family, how was their time at home, what are they watching on their phones, what is the current topic of discussion, etc.

At the DDP afterschool program, I recognize that this is a time where the deaf students can be themselves, build relationships, talk freely with their peers, and ask the two deaf volunteers for advice or help. The other hostel staff at DDP do sign, but their lack of fluency hinders them from having real conversations.
There is a continued need for our students to have more interaction with deaf role models and people from the deaf community. This afterschool program is moving DDP in the right direction.

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!