Epic Arts

Three weeks ago I started my new volunteer role at Epic Arts in Kampot. It has been completely wonderful. Epic Arts is disability arts charity which works in the UK, Cambodia and starting in China. In Cambodia, it is based in Kampot where I live and consist of a Community Outreach Program, which go out into the community and find out in which ways people are affected by disability and how they can be integrated into the community, a Vocational Training Program, in which deaf and people with physical disabilities learn dance and performance and how to run workshops, and a Special Education Program, which consists of 2 classes of children with intellectual disabilities. It is a very exciting time for Epic Arts, as a new building for the special ed program will be completed in October. There will be two separate classes, one for the older students and one for the younger students, a sensory room, an office a student kitchen and student toilets, a play ground, sandpit, sensory garden, vegetable garden and meeting room. At the moment the special ed program is running in the art room, which currently is not in use for art activities. 


It makes me wonder if all the ground work I did at St Pats in setting up a sensory room, a sensory garden, the playground and therapeutic spaces was in preparation for this! It is quite strange how I have landed on my feet in this role, disability and arts together in a developing country and I still get to work as an OT. I could not actually think of anything better at this stage of my life. It's about time!


This week has been particularly inspiring. Epic has been training up 2 women to be special ed teachers (as special ed is not recognised in Cambodia) and also several teacher assistants. This week has been the start of a 3 week training for the staff, run by Claire, the SEP Manager and myself. I am so touched by this whole process of fostering capacity building in people who would not otherwise had a chance to fulfil their passions for special education. This week Claire has run all day workshops on the history of the SEP. She used a visual road map of who has been involved in the journey along the way and staff were asked to draw the people on a road on butchers paper...I was even represented on the road! Woo hoo! It was such a lovely, inclusive way of representing how the program has evolved and how everyone has had an important part to play in it's development. We discussed what it means to have an intellectual disability, stages in child development, communication strategies for children with ID, teaching strategies for cognitive skills and I ran a morning workshop on sensory processing. 


One activity that really stood out for me was when Claire presented a photo of a "typical" 17 year old boy living in Cambodia. She asked the staff to write around him all the typical activities he would be doing, such as going to school, helping his family, riding a bike, reading books, watching TV, having a girlfriend, smoking, going to bars etc. We then had to imagine this boy had an intellectual disability and the capacity of a 4 year old, and then circle all the activities he would be participating in. Obviously this list was quite limited. Thirdly, in another colour we circled all the activities he would be doing if he had the support of an NGO or disability support service all his life. The staff managed to circle every activity, which demonstrated that the reason epic arts exists is to facilitate access to everything a person without a disability can access, but also to exemplify that having a disability does not need to limit options in life. It was so awesome to have discussions about human rights and dignity in a country where this philosophy is few and far between. It gave me great hope.


The staff are delightful, Sarom will be the younger class teacher and Kagna, who has an adorable little boy with down syndrome, will be the older class teacher. Then there is Roeun, who is a translator and is working on the new vocational program for SEP, Channy, a teaching assistant who has a little girl Sokcheata who has a severe ID, Phea, a 20 year old girl and Tune and the two cleaners. 


It is a particularly exciting time for Epic as we dream big about the future and where our students could be in the community. Chok, a 20ish year old who experiences down syndrome, has an amazing story from having challenging behaviours, no social inclusion and no formal communication a couple of years ago, to now fully participating in the epic arts community and producing his own line of cards and art works. He is such a character around town with his little back pack with a broken zip, stuffed full of photocopied passports and important document that he had picked up some where, wearing women's clothes and turning up at Epic at times where he should be elsewhere! We are starting a new vocational program for SEP and considering training the students to start adapted work at the Epic Arts Cafe, washing motos, making glass bead jewellery, gardening, tending to animals, pottery, photocopying etc. It's pretty ground breaking stuff here!


When I did my Landmark Advanced Course training in January this year I committed myself to being the possibility of social inclusion for everyone. I think it's happening...and it gives me tingles!