Pharos, 13th
Speaker: Neang Phalla
Moderator: Dr. Chhem Rethy Date: 23 March 2016 Time: 3:00pm Venue: CDRI Conference room #26 DiscussionIn the discussion, Phalla shared a lot of her experiences of being an educator, caregiver and director of the first school for blind people. With limited resource, she began her journey as an educator to 8 blind children under the Krousar Thmey non-governmental organization roof. At that time, blind children were seriously mistreated, she mentioned. A lot of families seemed to ignore their blind children and in worse case, they (the family) even made use of their blind children by transforming them into street beggar to make a living. Through stormy weather, she made it through. Phalla has successfully convinced a lot of families to allow their blind children to study. More than that, her commitment spirit over the years has somehow influenced policy makers and government to take a serious look at blind people education. For her achievement, all of her students got better future. Some of her students became officer in Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some worked in other government and private sectors. She said, "everyone was born special, even blind people. They may cannot see but in some ways, they even perform better than a fully equip person."
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Mrs. Neang Phalla’s bio
Phalla has been a teacher, school director and country-wide coordinator for the Education for Blind program in Cambodia for over 20 years. She began working with blind children in 1986 as a UN school director in a Thai refugee camp. When she returned to Cambodia in 1991, she started working for the NGO Krousar Thmey and in 1993 became the first Braille teacher in the history of the country. She has contributed to the opening of the first schools for blind people in Cambodia and to the creation of the Khmer version of Braille. Admirably, she was nominated in the top 10 Global Teacher Prize by Varkey foundation in 2014. Click here to read more
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