CHILDREN GO SILENT FOR DAY WITHOUT SPEECH

The little girl’s pigtails bobbed furiously as she pointed to the whiteboard in her other hand and wrote down the answer. Other students ran to the front of the classroom to see what she was writing on her board, peering curiously over her shoulder at her scribbles. Waving her arms up and down was the final clue needed before everyone quickly jotted down the answer: a bird.
 

A casual observer might call it a strange game of charades, but their silence – or more accurately their lack of words – is far more purposeful than one would guess.
 

These children are participating in Day Without Speech (DWS), a campaign to raise awareness about those struggling with speech and swallowing disorders.
 

Led by OIC Cambodia, a Phnom Penh-based NGO working to make speech therapy available to those who need it, the campaign has flourished, with schools and banks as well as individuals taking up the cause in recent months.
 

Weh Yeoh, managing director of OIC, said the idea was sparked almost three and half years ago by a friend who told him that it might be interesting to give up speaking for a day to get a glimpse of what those with speech disorders go through.
 

Since then, they have enlisted the help of schools across Australia and locally in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, and have plans to further expand the campaign in the future. Although speech is not allowed, participants can write down what they need to say.
 

The events have had profound effects on those who have tried it for a variety of reasons, Mr. Yeoh said.
 

“[Students] learn about inclusion more broadly, so it’s not just kids who might have communication disorders but all different types of kids, which helps with bullying. Another thing is learning about Cambodia and people who may be less privileged,” he told Khmer Times.
 

“Day Without Speech in Australia has grown so quickly, and the uptake is so high because it’s such a good experience for kids.”
 

Two students at Singapore International School in Phnom Penh writing down answers. (Photo: Jonathan Greig)

OIC has raised almost $30,000 since the campaign began, and the success has many of its own members itching for a shot at the day-long challenge.
 

Mr. Yeoh recently tried himself and was immediately flooded with insights into how people with speech difficulties cope.
 

“I have a whole new understanding and respect for people who have communication difficulties day to day,” he said. “I knew I would be frustrated, but I was surprised how quickly I became frustrated. My two friends who knew I was doing this decided to just speak to each other, and they even began to speak about me in front of me.
 

“It wasn’t anything malicious but it was just simply, they knew that to engage with me would take so much more effort. Frustration, isolation, helplessness, these were the main emotions that I felt which were negative. But then again, it wasn’t all negative.”
 

After meeting a coworker for lunch, who was also doing the challenge, he suddenly felt at ease, knowing they would not judge him for not speaking, and understood what they were both going through.
 

To his surprise, she was the person he communicated with better than anyone that day, despite lacking the tools of the spoken word.
 

A teacher at International School of Singapore (ISS) in Phnom Penh gestures during a Day Without Speech. (Photo: Jonathan Greig) 

Sam Kendall, fund-raising development manager at OIC, upped the ante for his own attempt, by keeping silent for 48 hours. What was most eye-opening for him was the need to prepare himself before any human interaction in case it was with someone who did not understand or was not supportive.
 

“I did a lot more preparation. Normally I don’t think of five different ways I might need to signal to a tuk-tuk where I need to go, and I may not always go out of my way to make sure I have exact change to pay, but when I couldn’t speak I spent a lot more time pre-planning interactions as simple as a tuk-tuk ride or other possible interactions with people,” he said.
 

“I was always nervous that if I didn’t have a few plans I might not be able to accomplish what I wanted to.”
 

He added that while he saw a number of parallels between the challenge for adults and for schoolchildren, the two experiences did differ because of the structure afforded to students.
 

“For adults it is more about self-education. Adults have to think about: what were they frustrated by? How can they change their own actions in relation to those frustrations going forward?” he told Khmer Times.
 

“The Day Without Speech in schools is more structured. There are lesson plans that teachers can use and a debrief that the students get so that they can think more widely about what they’ve just experienced.
 

“Everyone has a positive experience, but they take something different from that experience.”
 

And that structure was integral for students at International School of Singapore (ISS) in Phnom Penh, who had their kids try the challenge last week. Melissa Close, principal of the school, said students – between the ages of four and nine – took to the challenge eagerly.
 

“We really want to reach out to disadvantaged kids that are like them and support them. So it’s nice to educate and teach our kids how to self-discipline by not speaking, because they’re very active. They like to talk,” she said.
 

“It’s good for them to motivate themselves and do something that is purposeful.”
 

Preparation for the day took about two weeks, and involved teachers explaining the challenge and working with children to understand why not speaking would be important on that day. Even the teachers went silent.
 

For about 10 minutes each day leading up to the Day Without Speech, they went silent before the day’s classes.
 

“The teachers were reluctant at first because we didn’t think the students could do it. So for them to go through with it and pull this off is really impressive. I’m so proud of them,” Ms. Close said.
 

While the event does not capture the totality of the experience of those with speech issues – OIC fully acknowledges that not being able to speak at all is slightly different than being able to communicate but in a different way than your peers – it does give those who partake in it a taste of the daily uphill climb many people face.
 

“[A stutterer] once told me that you have a certain number of words that you can get out, simply because it will take too long. So there are all these words and thoughts that are bottled up inside because you can’t write that fast,” Mr. Yeoh said.
 

“Communication is the basis for almost everything we do. Particularly if you’re ambitious and high-functioning, it would be so frustrating. To keep on going out and facing mixed reactions from people but to keep on going back, that takes a lot of courage.
 

“We take it for granted, and that’s why I think this is really good.”

Managing director of OIC Weh Yeoh holds up special cards for the Day Without Speech event. (Photo: Jonathan Greig)

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/32040/children-go-silent-for-day-without-speech/

SPEECH THERAPY PROJECT AMONG TOP 500 NGOS

OIC: The Cambodia Project, a locally-based initiative aiming to provide speech therapy to those with speaking and swallowing disorders, was ranked among the top 500 NGOs in the world according to NGO Advisor, an independent media organization monitoring nonprofits across the globe.
 

The project, started under local NGO CABDICO in 2013, aims to not only train speech therapists in Cambodia but spread awareness about speech and swallowing disorders. Presently, Cambodia does not have any speech therapists despite an estimated population of 600,000 citizens suffering from speech issues.
 

Many children with speech and swallowing disorders are forced out of school due to a lack of resources and general misunderstanding of what speech disorders are. But OIC, ranked 453rd and the only NGO in Cambodia on the list, has been working to instruct teachers on how to deal with students facing these problems and provide care for those trying to overcome speech and swallowing issues.
 

“It’s an honor to be ranked amongst so many well-known NGOs like Oxfam, ActionAid and Kiva. We are proud to add a Cambodian initiative to this world ranking,” said Weh Yeoh, founder and managing director of OIC. “After only three years of existence, our efforts to change the lives of rural Cambodians are starting to be recognized by the international world.”
 

This is the second year OIC has been named in the list by the Geneva-based news outlet. NGO Advisor uses journalism and research to “to highlight innovation, impact and governance in the nonprofit sector.”
 

OIC has kick-started a number of innovative initiatives, most recently the “Day Without Speech” campaign, which asked supporters to go anywhere from an hour to 24 hours without speaking. The campaign aimed to show people what life is like for those with speaking issues, and through donations to specific groups around the world trying the “Day Without Speech,” OIC made more than $16,000.
 

In April, the project started its first crowdfunding campaign on newly established Cambodian crowdfunding site TosFund, hoping to raise enough money to train 180 teachers in Battambang, Pursat, Prey Veng, Kandal, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh provinces.
 

“Our goal is to work with teachers who already have a background in this kind of work, and eventually have this training be included within the larger framework of how classrooms are run,” Mr. Yeoh said.
 

“Imagine if you are a parent whose child needs speech therapy but you are unable to access any of these services,” he added. “It would be incredibly isolating. This campaign gives parents hopes for their children that they can get them into schools like other children in the country.”
 

Mr. Yeoh himself has been an outspoken critic of the way many NGOs in Cambodia operate, questioning why international organizations in many developing countries, including Cambodia, operate without a specific end date and a why there is “an air of fatalism” when it comes to the eventual handover of projects to the government.
 

Six-year-old Tai blows bubbles with her mother’s help. Blowing bubbles can help children with speech and swallowing disorders. (Photo: OIC)

“Localization is extremely difficult, especially when governments are used to international organizations doing the work for them. It’s far easier to keep the status quo running – the foreign organization doing the work, rather than promoting local ownership,” he wrote in an op-ed. “As long as the international community keeps on doing it, there is no incentive for governments to step in and take responsibility.”
 

But OIC has taken pains to reverse this trend and integrate more local staff to slowly build up to its eventual exit. In its three years in action, OIC has helped more than 100 children with speech issues and been lauded for its concrete 14-year exit plan that it believes will guarantee that speech therapy by Cambodians, for Cambodians can be led by the government.
 

By 2030, OIC hopes to have 100 speech therapists employed by the government, allowing them to completely hand off the project.
 

Mr. Yeoh said he was honored by the ranking and believed it would help spread awareness of their efforts to address a problem plaguing so many Cambodian children and adults in need of assistance.
 

“I hope that this enables us to better serve Cambodian people who need speech therapy through more partnerships with government and other NGOs,” he said.
 

Communications manager Philip Nalangan said OIC’s innovation was a key factor in the ranking, and credited their creativity to the difficulty of the work they are trying to do in Cambodia.
 

OIC Cambodia was established because there is no local speech therapist in Cambodia despite the urgent need of the service in the country,” he told Khmer Times. “One of our major challenges so far has been to increase the awareness amongst government leaders about speech therapy and how lives and communities can be changed by it. We want to spread this positive message to them, and we hope this international recognition gets their attention and support.”

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/27320/speech-therapy-project-among-top-500-ngos/

SPEECH THERAPY COMES TO CAMBODIA

PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – For more than 600,000 people in Cambodia with speech and swallowing disorders, assistance and solutions seem distant and even nonexistent at times. 

Outside of a few speech therapists from the UK and US working for local NGOs, there are no Cambodian speech therapists and no college programs educating physical therapists on how to deal with these issues.

OIC: The Cambodia Project is trying to change that.

Pilot Project

Helping people with disabilities throughout the Kingdom for many years, the Cambodian NGO Capacity Building for Development Cooperation (CABDICO) realized that almost 70 percent of people they work with could use some form of speech therapy. 

With no local speech therapists and training programs, they turned to Weh Yeoh, an Australian development worker with physiotherapy qualifications.

He started a pilot project with CABDICO that gave their community therapists some tools to help people with speech disorders. OIC (an acronym for ‘Oh, I See!’) grew out of that to directly address speech related issues throughout the country. 

“There’s been a big lag behind speech therapy arriving here, and the top four disabilities among children are non-physical,” Mr. Yeoh said. “We’re still a little bit in the dark ages when it comes to finding and dealing with people who have these issues here.” 

After the pilot program, an independent evaluation asked people involved about their thoughts on the program. One of the most common things said was, “How has Cambodia gone so long without this therapy?”

Locally-led Angle

OIC is trying to solve this problem by raising awareness about speech and swallowing disorders in communities and schools, while making speech therapy a legitimate profession for Cambodians.

If compared to the ratio of speech therapists to people with speech disorders in the US, Cambodia would need 6,000 therapists to handle the population in need.

A few NGOs have brought speech therapists from other countries to Cambodia, but OIC is approaching the project from a different angle, hoping to eventually have enough locally-based speech therapists to teach a course on it at a university and train a new generation of therapists.

“Instead of bringing services that Cambodia doesn’t have, and then leaving when we think our work is done, we’re setting up speech therapy as a locally-lead profession,” said Emma Blint, fundraising MANAGER for OIC.

They have already set up a partnership with an Australian university to build the capacity for speech therapy courses and majors at schools in Cambodia. 

They hope to have a university speech therapy course up and running by 2020.

Unseen, Unheard

Many children with speech and swallowing disorders don’t go to school. Even those who do are at a disadvantage, because most teachers don’t know how to handle the issues these children have.

“A lot of these children have communication problems, but their intelligence is normal and yet their potential is not being tapped because they’re being written off, just simply because they have communication issues,” Mr. Yeoh said.

Just the awareness about what speech therapy is and what speech disorders are has changed how many families view their children who have these issues.

“Without the knowledge of what speech therapy is or what a communication problem is, they’re not really ever found, they’re just invisible,” Mr Yeoh said.

OIC has already seen progress when it comes to community-based disability therapists. Many of those who were involved in the pilot project have said it changed the way they deal with their patients and improved their ability to help them.

“It has made me more confident in my ability to help these children, their families, teachers and communities,” said Chea Phearom, a community rehabilitation officer with CABDICO since 2006.

“I was able to give these kids the confidence to speak up in school, and let their parents and teachers know that there are ways to interact with them that can help and improve how you teach them.”

OIC has started a fundraising campaign, called ‘Unseen, Unheard’, ahead of a meeting with the UN and Cambodian government officials, hoping to use the stories of 20 children they’ve helped to illustrate how urgent a need speech therapy is.

“Speech therapy is about helping people communicate, but it’s also just about helping people be active members of their communities,” Mr. Yeoh said.

For more on OIC and their project, go to oiccambodia.org. To donate, go to startsomegood.com/unseen_unheard.

*This story ran on April 19, 2015