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Deafness in the developing world
by Juliet England
Deaf children and adults in the developing world are doubly disadvantaged when it comes to equality of opportunity and quality of life.
The World Federation of the Deaf says around 80% of deaf people worldwide live in developing countries, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) states there are some 278 million globally with moderate to profound hearing loss.
For many, access to communication, education, basic human rights and technology such as cochlear implants and hearing aids is prohibitively expensive or severely limited.
Sense International reports there are some 2.5 million deaf blind people in the world, a quarter of whom are based in the developing countries where the organisation operates. Under 1% of these receive support.
Y Care International is the overseas development agency of the YMCA. Sara Fowler, its Asia & Middle East Programme Coordinator, says, “Children in developing countries are already competing for scarce resources, and having a hearing impairment makes this more challenging due to the communication barriers deaf children face. There is also often a lack of understanding of the support hearing impaired children need, for example access to hearing aids and sign language.”
But despite the overall bleak picture, there are pockets of hope and some truly inspirational stories.
Tailored Help in Tanzania
The Tanzania Association of the Deaf, CHAVITA (Chama cha Viziwi Tanzania), supported by UK-based Action on Disability and Development (ADD), teaches sign language in rural areas, trains sign language interpreters and organises awareness raising workshops.
Its secretary, Evarist Tegete, a tailor who is himself deaf, explains, “Before joining the group, I felt very alone. If my doctor can’t communicate with me, he tells me to leave. If a policeman calls out to you and you do not hear, they can become angry and beat you. Now many people know me and I can talk about my problems with other deaf people.
“ADD has encouraged us to increase awareness. I hope sign language will reach the villages so other deaf people will join our group and educate others about including deaf people.”
YMCA Pre-School, Madurai, India
The YMCA Preschool and Integrated Education for the hearing impaired, set up in Madurai in 1994, remains one of few local programmes accessible to poor families. Y Care International has supported it since 2001.
Up to 30 newly enrolled hearing impaired children between the ages of two and five benefit from this project each year. The focus is on early identification and intervention. The children are trained for three years by fully qualified teachers, and intensive oral training is given, including lipreading, speech and auditory training, use of hearing aids and language development.
“This gives around two thirds of the children skills they need to then integrate into mainstream schools,” explains Sara Fowler. “Up to 10 pupils per year who cannot be integrated attend the YMCA special school in Visalakshipuram. As well as special lessons, these children attend regular classes with hearing children to reduce their sense of isolation.”
The project is based in India’s Tamil Nadu region. In Madurai alone, one of the region’s five districts, the hearing impaired population exceeds 12,600. For hearing impaired children, there is a shortfall in educational standards, vocational training and employment opportunities. This disproportionately affects poor families.
The project also addresses the cultural stigma attached to deafness. There are few opportunities for hearing impaired children in Tamil Nadu to make their voices heard and this can lead to discrimination and abuse.
Fowler adds, “We offer parents and children counselling to overcome their fears. One of the commonest causes of deafness is interfamilial marriage. The school highlights the dangers of these marriages.”
Opening Doors in Northern Ghana
In Tamale, northern Ghana, Idrissu believes everyone should be able to communicate and participate in public life, and that everyone’s voice should be heard.
Idrissu represents people with disabilities on the District Citizens Monitoring Committee (DCMC), run by the Christian Aid-backed SEND (the Social Enterprise and Development Foundation) and inspires many local deaf people because he is the only hearing person in Tamale who can sign.
The committee meets each month to learn how the government plans to use debt relief money, how to access it and how to monitor projects to ensure the government keeps its promises. Idrissu has helped disabled people become an integral part of this process, and challenge the systems preventing them from leading full lives.
He says, “We are all the same. It is not right that people are left out.”
Now in his late twenties, Karim Suliemanna was just two when he became deaf, and communicates with writing or sign language. “When I can’t speak, I can’t develop. I don’t know what’s happening,” he explains.
But, through Idrissu, Karim can fully contribute to discussions as well as accessing health care, training and business grants. He has also contributed to discussions with government about debt relief. “When we see Idrissu at a meeting, we have hope,” Karim adds. “We know we will understand, and that we will be heard.”
Street Work in Kenya
Deaf Child Worldwide (DCW), the international development arm of the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS), supports the Undugu Society of Kenya, established in 1975 to respond to the needs of street children. Its new programme to promote social inclusion for deaf children living and working in the streets of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, aims to help 200 youngsters over the next three years.
The project aims to raise awareness of deafness, supporting families to understand their child’s deafness and learn how to communicate, supporting social workers and providing access to education and vocational skills.
The new project will enable the Undugu Society to learn more about deaf street children, and to develop the right programmes to protect them from immediate risk, and reintegrate them with their families where possible.
One young girl aged of around 15 years old had run away from home and was found lost in Nairobi’s Kibera slum. She didn’t even know her own name, so staff call her Bahati – meaning Lucky in Kiswahili. She was taken to Undugu’s temporary shelter for rehabilitation, where she has been learning sign language.
She has settled in well and has been welcomed by the other children who are enthusiastically learning to sign. Slowly, she has opened up to staff and, eventually, Undugu will be able to reintegrate Bahati back into her family. Undugu will also support Bahati to get an apprenticeship with a local artisan, so that she can learn new skills and support herself financially.
A Voice for Deaf People in India
Janaki was just three months old when her parents abandoned her because of her defective ear, but her grit and determination have changed the lives of many.
Now 30, Janaki started out as a volunteer for ActionAid. Throughout her career, she has focused on women and children with hearing disabilities. Her efforts range from getting people hearing aids to creating employment opportunities for those with hearing impairment. This has led to more than 100 people finding jobs. Additionally she started about 50 self-help groups of differently-abled women.
Janaki also set up the People with Hearing Impaired Network (PHIN), which now has over 1000 members, and is now its President. She received the NCPEDP-Shell Helen Keller Award in 2007.
Learn More
www.add.org.uk/
www.ycareinternational.org/
www.actionaid.org.uk/100044/sponsor_a_child_today.html
www.christianaid.org.uk/
deafchildworldwide.info/
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Healthcare charity supports projects in Uganda
SignHealth, the healthcare charity for deaf people, has been working with The Woodford Foundation to establish a service for people in Uganda.
A SignHealth office was set up in Kampala in 2009, and over the last year SignHealth have established the first ever pre-school educational service for Deaf Children in Uganda, called Kiwatule Day Centre in Kampala.
The charity is also going to be providing pre-school education at the National School for the Deaf, at Ntinda, Kampala.
In partnership with the Woodford Foundation, Christopher Brock Trust and Sense International, SignHealth have also sponsored the completion of the new Deafblind Unit at the St Marks VII School for the Deaf in Bwanda, near Masaka in the southwest of Uganda.
Focus over the next year will be around health, specifically, mental health, maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS.
Healthcare staff will be trained in communication and awareness of the special needs of the deaf accessing healthcare.
The charity will continue to network and advocate for improvements in deaf rights, working towards reducing inequalities.
Community/Support Groups will also be set up to focus on supporting existing groups linked into the health, education or advocacy aspects of the programme in order to improve the services.
There are circa 750,000 deaf people in the country with communication barriers, abject poverty and illiteracy and ill health preventing any improvement. It is estimated 90% of deaf people in the country are unable to read or write.
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Student signing group win award 
A school in Morpeth has been awarded a national accolade in recognition of their student-led sign language group.
Happy Hands, the group created by students from King Edward VI School, won the ‘Performance’ category of the CHANGEit Awards and collected their prize, which included a cheque for £750, at the Ministry of Sound in London.
The award was presented to them by Mark Bolton, the Managing Director for Deutsche Asset Management UK, Deutsche Bank.
The pupils will be looking to invest their prize money in new resources, such as puppets, that will aid the learning of primary and middle school pupils. The King Edward VI School is also looking to collaborate with local deaf schools and create a new programme encouraging children to learn British Sign Language.
Happy Hands, led by year 13 student Braden Davy, beat over 900 entries in the competition to be crowned national winners.
Other members of the group are Joseph Thompson, Cameron Welburn, Clare Conway, Eddie Baxter, Paul Simm, Ellen Tait and Eleanor Rowbottom. The puppets – Gary, Josie, Dorris and Clide – also made the trip to the award ceremony in London and each received a certificate. Their project began back in October 2009 during the British Deaf Association’s Learn to Sign Week.
Braden Davy, the group’s Student Voice Ambassador, offered free sign language classes, which became such a hit that attending pupils decided to hold sessions on a regular weekly basis.
Puppets were introduced to the students, who were of mixed age, to develop their learning process. The group are assisted by support teacher Will Benson, who has a deaf son.
Braden said, “We were delighted to win the award and it’s great news for the group as the money will allow us to develop what we have to offer, start organising events and step up plans to work with other schools.”
The hard work of the group will lead to a sign language qualification. King Edward VI high school, situated in the town of Morpeth in Northumberland, serves the town itself as well as the nearby areas of Coquet and Wansbeck Valleys.
They serve 1,400 students from years 9 to 13 as well as a thriving Sixth Form of 500 students and are one of the top ranking schools in the north-east of England.
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