The Cambodia roundtable participants came from diverse backgrounds, including parents, teachers, government workers and disabled people's organisations, this gave rise to some lively and interesting debates over the three days.
Below, some of the participants share their views on disability and development, Inclusive Education and their thoughts on the roundtable.
Dr
Bhoomikumar Jegannathan – Director and Consultant Child Psychiatrist,
Centre for Child Mental Health (Caritas-CCMH)
Dr Bhoomikumar first became interested in Inclusive Education in India when he worked on a mental health programme in rural India. Here he conducted a survey with 300 primary schools across six districts; the results showed that many children with ‘hidden’ disabilities such as specific learning difficulties tend to drop out of school, leading to exclusion.
In 1994 Dr Bhoomikumar completed a one-year Diploma
in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, University
of London and became interested in developing child mental health services
in post-conflict areas. This led him to Cambodia in 1996. He intended
to stay in the Kandar province for just one year but felt his work was
of value and has worked at the Centre for Child Mental Health (Caritas-CCMH)
ever since.
Caritas-CCMH works with children, families and communities to address
the cause and effect of disability, in particular dealing with mental
health issues. Dr Bhoomikumar and his staff take referrals from all over
Cambodia and offer support, resources, and information to all who come
to the centre. They work in close collaboration with the provincial health
department, primary health centres and the department of education.
Dr Bhoomikumar has conducted a number of research projects looking into ‘hidden disabilities’ and the attitudes of communities to children with disabilities attending mainstream schools.
He feels that initiatives such as the roundtable show how much work professionals in Cambodia still have to do, but that the roundtable provides an opportunity to examine the challenges of Inclusive Education and to set targets to change attitudes in society.
Mrs
Svay Simorn - mother and grandmother, Cambodia
Simorn’s story begins in 1979 when she was taken to the Thai border by Khmer Rouge soldiers. Although Cambodia had been liberated from Pol Pot’s regime, Simorn had no opportunity to leave and remained with the Khmer Rouge for one year. It was during this time that she gave birth to her daughter, Chak Rya, in conditions of extreme hardship and poverty. Despite these circumstances Rya was a bright child; it was only after an accident when she was violently grabbed by a soldier that she began to exhibit signs of having learning difficulties.
In 1985 Simorn returned to Phnom Penh, and encouraged her daughter to attend a local primary school. Regardless of Rya’s best efforts she was unable to pass the required annual exams and spent five years in the first grade, unable to move up and receiving little support from the school.
Life became even harder for Simorn and her daughter when at age 13 Rya was raped and became pregnant by her elder adopted brother. Simorn felt pressured to comply with the customs and traditions of her community and Rya and her brother were married. Unfortunately, at age three, Rya’s child fell while playing and after hospital treatment was diagnosed as having learning difficulties. It wasn’t until Rya had given birth to two more children that Simorn became aware that her daughter had been subjected to repeated domestic violence at the hands of her husband.
At this point Simorn, heartbroken and angry at everything that had happened to her daughter, decided to break with all tradition. She and Rya approached the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Centre (CWCC) and eventually Rya divorced her husband. Now they can be free of what they see as the discriminatory customs of Khmer society; the two women wear trousers, Simorn rides a scooter and importantly they support themselves (Simorn, a trained nurse, runs a small pharmacy in Phnom Penh). Simorn has close ties with the CWCC and advocates for the rights of other Cambodian women.
Simorn felt the roundtable had given her a chance to express how she felt about her daughter’s education and to make sure that other parents of children with disabilities have a choice in their children’s education. She had enjoyed the opportunity to share her experiences of organisations such as CWCC and Centre for Child Mental Health (Caritas-CCMH), who have also provided Simorn and Rya with a lot of support. She is immensely proud of her daughter and grandson and fights hard to overcome the prejudices and fears of other people.
Simorn observed: “It is too hard to be a parent of a disabled child. We have so many worries and concerns regarding their future…it is very hard for others to understand. By sharing my experiences with parents in other countries, I hope we can all fight for the rights of our children.”
Mrs
Sok Sitha - mother, Cambodia
Sitha has three children, two daughters and one son. Her boy, Sovann, was born healthy and strong but suffered from a head injury when he was a baby.
Sovann was diagnosed as having learning difficulties and was unable to speak until he was six years old. Now at 14 he is capable of engaging with every day activities although he finds it difficult to understand more complex instructions or to relate to past or future events.
Sovann’s situation has resulted in him finding it a challenge to remain at school. He attends a mainstream school but has spent seven years in the first grade. This experience has led Sitha to conclude that: “The teachers have not been supportive or understanding of my child’s needs”. To supplement Sovann’s education Sitha employs a private tutor; she is thankful that she has the resources to help her child. Sitha is determined to ensure her son has every opportunity to lead a full and active life and is hopeful that he will have a career when he grows up.
Sitha feels that prejudice against people with disabilities is the main obstacle preventing her son from enjoying his life. She battles hard to help people overcome their fears and feels that schools have a large part to play in educating pupils and parents about tolerance.
She says: “At times people have been very cruel to my child, shouting at him and calling him names, but how do they know they won’t ever become disabled, isn’t it better to show some understanding and kindness?”
Her experience has also shown her that some schools do not have enough facilities for children with severe disabilities and teachers in Cambodia often lack the expertise to deal with children with mental disabilities.
Sitha was happy to attend the roundtable and share her thoughts with others. She felt it gave her an excellent opportunity to see how much support there is for parents of children with disabilities from many different organisations, including government departments, health organisations and Non-Government Organisations. By keeping in touch with the contacts she made Sitha hopes her son will find support and the opportunity to work.
Mr
Alam Jahurul Khandaker – Executive Director, Centre for Services
and Information on Disability (CSID)
Alam Khandaker has been involved with the disability and development sector since 1977. During this time he has worked for a number of years at the Vocational Training Centre for the Blind, and also at the Village Research and Service Centre. In 1998 together with a group of professionals he set up CSID.
In recent years he has run Inclusive Education and disability campaigns right across Bangladesh. He has worked at a policy level since 1991 and was active in drafting the government’s national policy on disability which was approved in 1995 and passed in parliament in 2001. Alam was also the Country Director of ADD from 1993 to 1998 and since 1991 has been the president of the National Forum of Organisations Working with People with Disabilities in Bangladesh.
Alam currently focuses his efforts with CSID programmes, which has three main areas of activities;
- Research – focusing on children, women and adolescent girls, disaster recovery, employment and training
- Information and communication networks – set up in 1999 it now boasts a network of 600 subscribers from across the globe.
- Community based rehabilitation – in particular working with children from rural areas and urban slums
Alam says: “Creating change in society is a slow process, but there is so much potential to make a difference in people’s lives and this is what CSID aims to do.”
Alam found the roundtable useful for sharing experiences and finding out what people felt was realistic in their countries.
Ms
Khampheth Savongvangthong – Principal Phaxay Primary School, Vientiane,
Laos
Ms Savongvangthong has been teaching in Vientiane, Laos for 14 years. As the principal of Phaxay Primary School she has 184 pupils aged four to eight in her care, of these 14 children have disabilities.
Ms Savongvangthong started an Inclusive Education project in1995 with the support from the local monks who house the school on their temple grounds. She remembers the first three years as the most challenging, as teachers and parents had to face up to their own feelings and prejudices about Phaxay Primary School becoming Inclusive.
Initially, some parents were afraid to bring their children with disabilities to the school. Equally parents of non-disabled children were fearful of what would happen to the school if disabled children were allowed to attend.
To tackle the issues raised, Ms Savongvangthong and her teachers went in search of children with disabilities in the community. They embarked on a careful programme of training and talks with parents, teachers and the local administration. Once people understood the benefits that Inclusive Education could bring to the community and to the school they were very supportive of Ms Savongvangthong’s vision.
To ensure that the Inclusive Education programme continues to be a success the Phaxay Primary School IE team hold weekly meetings for parents and teachers. Parents of disabled and non-disabled children are encouraged to share their concerns and to learn from the good example set by the children themselves.
Phaxay Primary School is now seen to be a success story not just in Laos but across the whole region, it was recently awarded the ‘outstanding school’ award in the Vientiane district, and visitors from many countries come to learn about how Phaxay has become a fine example of Inclusive Education.
Choeurng
Choeurn - Director, Association Supporting Disability for Development
(ASDD), Cambodia
Chhoeurn has worked with non-disabled organisations for ten years. During this time he came to understand the situation faced by people with disabilities in rural and urban situations and the lack of opportunities for employment. This led him to set up ASDD in 2001 with a group of people with disabilities.
ASDD has programmes of activities in:
- Education
- Agriculture and income generation
- Environment and public health
- Accessibility
- Professional skills training
Programmes are run for both adults and children and there is a strong emphasis on raising awareness of disability issues, advocacy and supporting people to develop skills for worthwhile employment.
ASDD also carries out research into various disability issues. Chhoeurn is about to begin a data gathering exercise in the Banteay Meanchey province of Cambodia. He will be determining the numbers of people with disabilities who currently attend school in the area.
Chhoeurn enjoyed being part of the roundtable; he felt he had gained valuable experiences from the different countries represented.
