Deaf National Football Team
Challenge: The organization where I work, the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme, has the vision statement: Deaf people are accepted, respected and included as equal in all aspects of Cambodian society. While we strive to make that a reality, we face many challenges. The largest of which is that for years our deaf community and Cambodians who are deaf have had huge limitations on their access to everything, including education. Therefore, often times, hearing people are the ones leading the efforts (the problem here being that us hearing folks will never be the best ones to lead efforts for deaf people because the deaf people are best at leading efforts for themselves).
Hope: This past year, a group of deaf community members formed the first Deaf National Football Team. They took the initiative, and despite many challenges, they made it happen and competed in the ASEAN Deaf Football Championship. They did not win any grand trophy, but they showed to their community that even in a culture that often seems to tell people who are deaf that they can't, YES, WE CAN!
Road clean-up
Challenge: Cambodia struggles with waste management. I have biked through mini-wind cyclones of plastic bags more times than I care to remember. My unfounded perspective is that in the past, Cambodians would wrap things from the market in banana leaves (those you theoretically would just throw in the street). The "new technology" of plastic bags took over long before the new waste management systems came in to being. Many people honestly do not understand anything about environmental protection. *There are many, many, many other issues going on here as well but keep in mind it is not just people hating the environment.
Hope: The Deaf Community Center where I work, has done multiple workshops and events on recycling and protecting the environment. They also did a road clean-up last year. While these one time events are undone within a few days, some of those involved have mentioned it changing their perspectives on throwing trash in the street. And, it definitely turned heads when a group of deaf people were coming through to clean-up the mess left by others.
Travel
Challenge: When all we see all day, every day, is the same thing, the same perspectives, the same ways of working, we tend to believe that is the only way. But, when we are immersed in a different approach, we start to see there are multiple paths that all lead to great outcomes. No one way is the only way.
Hope: Many of my friends and colleagues here save their money for travel or try to find ways to travel, even if just to neighboring Thailand. Last year, a group of us went to Vietnam on holiday. It was an amazing experience for me because of the constant, did-you-see-that moments from my colleagues. Some of the Cambodians I know that are starting to travel come from very simple backgrounds but do everything they can to expand their horizons and learn new perspectives.
Youth
Challenge: There are many factors from governmental to cultural to historical that face my lovely home of Cambodia but...Hope:
...Youth, like my lovely colleague pictured above, bring me so much hope. This colleague of mine is one of the most selfless people I know, in any country. She is highly intuitive and uses that to help meet the needs of those around her. She does not care much about the material and status symbols in life, rather she focuses on how to help those around her be their best selves. She also strives to improve herself constantly but with the end goal of better being able to meet the many needs of those in her society. She has to struggle with walking the many fine lines of culture, power, hierarchy, and role that exist here but she doesn't mind the struggle if it is for a greater good. And, she is not alone, I have met many youth who share her passion and really dump their hearts into the service of others. In twenty years, these will be the leaders of businesses, government, churches, and communities (or so I dare to hope).
Kids
These little ones lead me to hope. Even if things seem bleak, they are the ones inheriting this world and so regardless of the country where we reside, I think it is important to continue to hope and not get discouraged as a model for them. The young ones have an amazing way of not getting caught up in the chaos and appreciating that tomorrow will come brighter than today, if we just keep striving for that future. These little smiles are always a sign of hope to me and just five minutes with one of them gives me the energy to keep on keeping on.
This post is part of Blogging Abroad's 2017 New Years Blog Challenge, week four: Change and Hope.
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