DYP Learning Center

Meaningful training for people with vision loss, here in Cambodia, can only be given by collecting the people with visual impairments from those predominantly remote villages and by bringing them to a boarding Center for a certain amount of time to study in different fields, hopefully until a noteworthy, life-enhancing achievement has been reached. At best to the point, that the student found a way to live much more independently and has gained a skill which helps him/her to sustain him/her-self.

Most of the future students will have had no or just minor former education, when they join our programs and in nearly all cases we start practically from scratch with literacy. After Assessments, Person Centered Planning will be applied from time to time, to see where the prospective student stands (in terms of general knowledge and experience), what he/she needs and which path of training the student prefers to take.
Some classes are mandatory, like the Independent Living Skills classes, whereas others like languages or music classes are a matter of choice.

Course subjects offered at DYP

  • Independent Living Skills (ECC)
  • Cooking/Baking
  • Shopping
  • Personal management and self-care
  • Orientation & Mobility
  • Money Management
  • Time Management etc.
  • Braille literacy (English and Khmer).
  • Calculating with the abacus and mental arithmetic.
  • Handling of smartphones, laptops and other technical aids.
  • Khmer traditional and Pop music instruments.
  • Various craft skills, such as tying fishing nets, hammocks, macrame, etc.
  • Agriculture. Cultivation of vegetables, sprouts etc.
  • Languages
  • English
  • Thai
  • Sports/Gymnastics.

Other activities

  • Recreation and leisure activities, such as horse-riding, pottery and hiking etc.
  • Personality development short-courses, like self-awareness, problem solving, interpersonal relationships.
  • Counselling

Further

  • DYP assists people with VI
  • With learning and employment opportunities
  • With self-help group formation
  • By providing funding support for small businesses
  • In building local and international networks
  • DYP
  • Develops rehabilitation programs
  • Raises awareness on the importance of education for all
  • Raises awareness on the importance of education for all
  • Enables children and adults with VI to experience different aspects of life
  • Brings joy and happiness
  • Promotes access to legal aid and health care
Apart from that we offer various games and special activities like pottery, horseback riding, mountain hiking etc. to strengthen our students’ discernment and self-confidence.
DYP endeavors to offer the students a meaningful perspective after the completion of the project. Be it professionally in the city, or possibly through an innovative business idea or through a self-help group in the country.

Expanded Core Curriculum

The term “Expanded Core Curriculum” is used to define the essential additional disability-specific knowledge, skills and attitudes for students who are blind, have low vision, deaf blindness, or additional disabilities. Each student with vision impairment is unique, and so are the additional areas they require in order to achieve success in their educational setting. Experiences and concepts casually and incidentally learned by sighted students, for example, may need to be systematically and sequentially taught to students with vision impairment (South Pacific Educators in Vison Impairment, 2016).

The Expanded Core Curriculum for students with vision impairment

The Expanded Core Curriculum is unique to each student with impaired vision, depending on their specific needs.
The nine areas of The Expanded Core Curriculum or ECC include:

1

Compensatory and functional academic skills

  • Braille reading and writing
  • Concept development
  • Study skills
  • Use of adapted materials
  • Organizational skills of personal belongings and school materials
2

Use of assistive technology

  • The teaching and use of auditory equipment
  • The use of the keyboard and computer
  • Touch typing
  • Producing assignments
  • Communicating by email
  • Accessing the worldwide web
3

Visual efficiency skills

  • Use of the WESSST (Weight, Edge, Size, Shape, Sound, Texture & Temperature) technique
  • Use of the NBC (Near By Consideration)
  • The use of non-optical and optical low vision aids
  • Understanding implications for the vision impaired
  • Study skill
4

Orientation and mobility

  • Cane and other mobility aides
  • Sighted guide techniques
  • Landmarks, maps
  • Locating and reading timetables
  • Locating essential items
  • Public transport
  • Concept development: Body concepts, spatial concepts, environmental concepts
5

Social Interactions

  • Appropriate conversational skills and techniques
  • Holding your head up: using gestures appropriately, looking at/facing others when spoken to or when speaking to someone.
  • Following a conversation, listening, turn taking, answering questions and responding appropriately.
  • Engaging appropriately in certain situations such as an interview; asking for directions or when speaking on the telephone.
  • Interacting with others and initiating interactions
  • Friendships
  • Engaging in age-appropriate games, play and conversations
6

Independent Living Skills

  • Sequencing of tasks
  • Shopping and money
  • Choosing/matching clothes
  • Cleanliness/grooming
  • Dressing/shoelaces/zippers/buttons
  • Home address and phone number
  • Knife and fork use, kitchen skills
  • Food preparation: peel orange, unwrap lunch, etc.
  • Read watch, tell time
  • Dial phone, 000
  • Home management skills
7

Recreation and Leisure skills

  • School sport, social and recreational activities
  • Community social events
  • Using parks and playgrounds
  • Art and craft activities or other hobbies
  • Self-selected leisure activities alone or with others
  • Electronic and interactive games
  • Fitness programs
8

Career education

  • Career awareness
  • Responsibility
  • Independent travel
  • Interview and job skills
  • Exploration of further study
  • Meet employed VI mentors
  • Work experience
9

Self determination

  • Accepting and declining help
  • Understanding your limitations
  • Recognizing & striving: potential
  • Understanding and explaining Vision Impairment
  • Setting own goals
  • Problem solving
  • Decision making
  • Self-advocacy skills
  • Receive and offer mentorship

Educational Support

University scholarships for students with visual impairments

  • We offer University scholarships
  • We support the living costs of university students
  • We support university students with study materials (such as laptops, smartphones, notebooks, magnifiers, etc.)

Collaboration with the Siem Reap Special Education High-school (SRSE)

Between the year 1990 to the year 2000 the Krousar Thmey NGO has opened five special schools/dorms across Cambodia, which took care of deaf children and children with visual impairments. These schools only hosts students until they finish (High) School and have been handed over to the government in 2019.
The Siem Reap branch opened in the year 2000 and is now called the Siem Reap Special Education High-school (SRSE).

In November 2020, 18 students with visual impairments (VI) and 151 deaf students were going to School at this branch in Siem Reap. Our research identified many more children and adolescents with VI in the remote countryside and promoted the possibility of studying at SRSE. With our support, 49 students with VI are studying there now (March 2023).

What We Do for SRSE

  • Supporting blind and deaf children with hygiene supplies
  • Supporting Khmer traditional music classes and guitar classes
  • Providing training courses for the teachers of the visual impairments
  • Providing pocket money for students with visual impairments
  • Providing school uniforms
  • Providing clothes
  • Supporting SRSE in many other ways

Collaboration with the École d'Hôtellerie et de Tourisme Paul Dubrule

Founded in 2002, the École d’Hôtellerie et de Tourisme Paul Dubrule, a project of the NGO Formation et Progrès-Cambodge, has progressively established itself as one of the most renowned vocational schools for hospitality and tourism in Cambodia.

DYP and EHT decided to start a pilot project together to provide meaningful vocational training to underprivileged rural students. EHT will offer quality workshops possibilities in the fields of:

  • Baking
  • Cooking

The goal hereby is to enable the students of DYP to:

  • Cook for themselves
  • Learn the first basics to be employable
  • Explore possibilities to run their own activity
  • Be an active part of any DYP food project

1st Nationwide Research (from March-May 2019)

Are there institutions in Cambodia that support people with visual impairments in learning life skills and offer vocational training opportunities?

Results

There are many NGOs and institutions in Cambodia that deal with the medical aspect of the eye, e.g. prevention, medical care, aftercare or with the disabled per se, but there is no organization that is exclusively dedicated to the education/vocational training for people with visual impairments. And just this group in particular needs specialized support.

2nd Nationwide Research (June 2019)

How many people are affected with vision loss in Cambodia

By checking online data, we found there are no reliable and new data sets from the government and other stakeholders. So, our findings are based on

Estimations/survey

Cambodia is divided into 25 provinces, the provinces are divided into districts,
then communes and then villages.

In 2015, 198 visually impaired/blind children were taught in all Krousar Thmey branches * (62 of them were girls) which is 1.32% of the 15,100 mentioned.
(Session 6.4-Hervé-ROQUEPLAN-Krousar-Thmey-Cambodia-220-PRA-pdf-English)

3rd Research (November 2019 – ongoing)

Siem Reap province is divided into 1 municipality and 11 districts, and further subdivided
into 100 communes and 907 villages.

How many people with visual impairments are living in the province of Siem Reap?

Under the umbrella of the Cambodian Children’s Advocacy Foundation Organization (CCAFO), Mr. Sang Vanndy and Mr. Keuk Sengthai were assigned to conduct this research, which would also show whether a learning Center for this group of people would be feasible.

In addition to that, a

4th Research (November 2019 – ongoing) was aligned about

What are the living conditions of those people?

The goal of the research, was to get to know about what they are doing, their medical and living conditions,  their schooling, abilities, what they would like to learn, the dreams they have and so much more.
Therefore, we have developed a comprehensive questionnaire.At the same time, a database was developed to provide the best possible access to all data collected.

Data Storing

At the same time, a database was developed to provide the best possible access to all data collected.

Data of the Blind & Visually Impaired in 7 districts of Siem Reap Province (Sotr Nikum, Prasat Bakong, Pouk, Banteay Srey, Kralanh, Angkor Chum, Angor Thom) 5 more Districts to cover.

Direct Assistance Program

Discover Your Possibilities Organization supports the most economically disadvantaged people in the province of Siem Reap and other provinces as feasible with monthly food rations.

The Way You Can Help

Take action now by donating…. Make a one off donation for more information.

iHerb charitable Foundation
Cambodian Children’s Advocacy Foundation Organisation
ARGE Missions- und Entwicklungshilfe e.V.