This is the first year the Deaf Development Program has had graduation ceremonies. We saw them as a way to both reward and encourage the students and also to motivate their parents and show them that our NGO is sincerely interested in their children.
Our first graduation ceremony was in Banteay Meanchey Province. The second was today in Kampot Province, at the extreme south of the country, along the coast of Gulf of Thailand. Again the celebration was held in a local restaurant and we were very pleased with the turnout of the parents who are obviously but interested and concerned about the future of their deaf children.
 Some of the students and parents arrived at the classroom more than an hour before the ceremony |
 Something you wouldn't see in the USA: elderly parents climb into the back of a truck for the ride to the restaurant |
 Each student was allowed to invite two family members to the dinner and celebration |
 Bunthok (left), our Education Team Leader, and Sinoun, our interpreter, arrange the certificates |
 Prak Ketya, the teacher in Kampot, gave a talk on the situation of deaf people |
 Charlie Dittmeier, as director of the Deaf Development Program, gave out the certificates |
 The seventeen students and their certificates of completion |
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 The father of one of the students expressed his appreciation for the education is son is receiving |
 On the way back, we made a stop to buy some watermelons, about seven or eight cents each |
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