PHNOM PENH: Secretary of State of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the Disability Action Council, Em Chan Makara, supported the establishment of an Association of the Deaf in Cambodia by requesting a case manager and more details of the logistics of such a project. He noted that creating it is easy, but maintaining sustainability is difficult.

The secretary of state spoke at a meeting between the leaders from the Disability Action Council, the leaders of the National Institute for Special Education, and trainees of the 10th session of sign language translation training on Wednesday, 23 August. He supported the National Institute of Special Education’s request to establish an Association of the Deaf in Cambodia and proposed careful consideration of the scope of work needed to maintain the sustainability of the association. "Creating it is easy, but sustainability for the association or community is necessary," he said.

Currently, there are nearly one million people living with disabling hearing loss in Cambodia. There was no sign language in the country before 1997 when a field worker for the Finnish Association of the Deaf began gathering deaf people in Phnom Penh and encouraging them to communicate with each other. From those beginnings, a formal Cambodia Sign Language (CSL) has evolved.

The government is pushing for more sign language outreach to provide information to people with deafness, but it is a challenge with the limited number of sign language teachers. According to the National Institute of Special Education, there are only 122 sign language teachers in Cambodia.

Secretary Em Chan Makara added that sign language interpreters in Cambodia are in high demand; however education on the importance of Cambodian sign language translation services was still limited. He prompted the widespread education on the issue in addition to certifying official Cambodian sign language translation services to clearly define the profession.