Send Thelma to school

Dear Donors,

One year ago thanks to your support we succeeded on sending Thelma to Buea School for the Deaf.

She completed one full year there with satisfactory grades and the reports from Buea School for the Deaf are very positive. Although she is still picking up as it is her first year not only of school but also communicating in sign language, she adapted very quickly to her new life and the teachers and staff of the School have been charmed by her sympathy.

The most amazing output is that she managed to teach her own mother basic sign language, a few key signs and the whole alphabet. She went over each letter with her and taught her every single sign during holiday periods. Stephanie has managed to learn those signs and now, thanks to you, mother and daughter are finally communicating fluently, and loving it. In this video you can see how they communicate, Thelma is writing the alphabet and whenever she does not remember which letter goes after which one, she looks at her mother. Then Stephanie makes the sign for the necessary letter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGZTLA_qoMI

It’s another year and we are again supporting her for another year, in case you want to continue in touch with her progress check out her new microproject : https://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/send-thelma-to-deaf-school/ You might notice now that the budget is higher than last year, this is because the first project was under budgeted, in fact the overall cost is decreasing as there are a fix supplies that are not required this year. You’ve supported us already and we cannot ask for more, but maybe you can consider reaching to your personal network with this new project and see if someone else wants to support Thelma’s second year. Be glad for now of what you started, you opened the world for Thelma, let’s us hope she can continue broadening her world in the years to come.

You did a great thing. Thank you again.

Thelma has been in Buea school for the Deaf for a month now and she has adapted quickly to her new life, they estimate that she will be able to use sign language by the end of the period, in December.

We could provide all the materials required for her full year, some of them will be used for the next years to come like the mattress and we at Reach Out will make ourselves ready for next year with a small Project that supports the rights of disabled, specially children, in Tole. We have come to the understanding that the situation of disabled people in the village is particullarly hard for the combination of barriers that affect their development and opportunities.

Her mother is also improving on her business and is slowly coping with the idea of having her child in boarding school, it is very sad that there is no other option for a deaf child in Cameroon but to be separated for most of her days from her mother, but she and us know that education and sign-language are crucial for her to develop herself fully and sadly she cannot learn that in Tole village.

You can keep supporting women like her mother through our parent Project, and if you care specially about disability issues we have created another one for the family of a blind single mother (Florence), also living in Tole. Today, 15^th of October, from 9.00 to 23.59 EDT, globalgiving gives a 30% extra for every donation (up to 1000$ per donor per project). And it is a great opportunity for helping improve these vulnerable women life, so between one small project and the next one we can slowly start making of Tole a place fit to live and develop for everybody. You can find the hour in your timezone here http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=October+Bonus+Day&iso=20141015T09&p1=263

Keep a Girl Alive project http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/make-an-impact-girls-education-cameroon/

 Florence http://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/support-florence-struggle/

Thank you for securing Thelma, you can truly say you changed a life with your decision.

Wednesday was the first day of Thelma in Buea School for the deaf, there was a lot of crying involved while she was saying goodbye to her mother. But she was already playing and making new friends in a few minutes time.

We are sure she will adapt. She is a very bright kid with a fascination for technology, every time we take a picture she comes afterwards to see herself on the camera, and such an easiness to make friends and play, even without knowing how to speak or use sign language.

She was allowed into the school for a period of grace conceded to us by the School of the Deaf; we hope we can get all the funds during this time, but it was capital that she started her education as soon as possible.

The last days have been quite hectic in Reach Out’s office, all departments were working together to make sure everything will be ready for this day, we met with the school and visited Stephanie’s house in Tole again, we filled the proper forms to assess all needs and some of the volunteers worked extra time to get everything required for her year in the school in the market. Those who have been in an African market will know that this was a very exhausting task.

But on Wednesday everyone was very happy to meet the professionals of Buea School of the Deaf, an example to all hearing impaired children.

We are now permanently in touch with the School, to see how Thelma is evolving, and we will make sure she continues to adapt to her new life.

So far we have only received one donation, but the first one is the hardest to get!

Thank you very much, you are giving her the most precious gift.