Give Each Child a Chance

STORY OF NANG VEN
As told by Global Ministries staff Xuyen Dangers

Nang Ven first came to the Donkoi Children Development Center (DCDC) six years ago when her mother was a weaver in the Samkhet mother’s weaver group.  Ven’s mother is one of the ten mothers who volunteered at DCDC once a week to teach little weavers in the After-School Program of Donkoi School.

Ven was seven years old. Ven’s mother was asked if she had begun school. Her mother said: “No, she cannot hear or talk.”  When asked if she knew of the deaf school here in Vientiane, She said “no.” She was then asked if she would like to take her to visit the school. She hesitated, but because we offered to help her, she agreed. The next day, Bounmy, a young social work student and a DCDC’s volunteer, took Ven and her father to the school for the deaf and mute in the National Rehabilitation Training Center, NRTC.  

Ven was too young to be in the dormitory and there was no one to take her back and forth from her house to the deaf school which is about a 30 minute trip by bicycle. We offered to have one volunteer of DCDC take her until another solution was found since the school year had already begun. DCDC volunteer (Souny) took her a few days and her father said he could take Ven on his way to his work as a construction worker. That was the beginning of Nang Ven’s educational life

She is now 13 years old, has been in school for six years and is attending grade six. She stays in the dormitory some of the time and stays at home some of the time. She has many friends and is very much liked by her teachers and friends. She can now read and write. She communicates by sign language and weaves very well. She learned weaving at DCDC and with her mother at home. She is now teaching weaving at the after-school activity program at the deaf school. On weekends she weaves at home with her mother and in the summer time she goes to DCDC to teach sign language to children in DCDC.