Equip deafblind children with skills for life!

Thirteen-year-old Daniel has suffered from retinopathy of prematurity and total blindness since birth. Also, his left wrist is deformed and both thumbs don’t function at all. Having stayed in the Deaf-Blind and Multi-Handicapped Program (DBMH) for more than six years, Daniel has changed a lot. He was originally aggressive and easy to get angry; through the training at St. Nicholas Home, he would no longer attack others and even becomes the most independent student in class. He has learned to wash hands with soap after toilet and before eating, feed himself, wash his own plates, wear shoes and clothes, help teachers turn off lights and fans, close windows, pick up teaching materials and etc. The thumbs problem seems not an obstruction for Daniel.

Daniel is quite an active and brave boy who is filled with curiosity and not afraid of falling down on the ground when first coming to a new environment. With much energy all the time, Daniel always takes the lead of all classmates. While others are walking on the round track, Daniel has started to speed up and go jogging. While everyone is warming up and counting to 5, Daniel has counted to 10. As a fast leaner and doer, Daniel is always the first one arriving at the classroom, toilet, dormitory and dining hall.

In the aspects of communication ability and speech clarity, however, Daniel needs more training. Now when being asked questions, his expression is through being active as well as through sound, touch, or only a couple of words.

In 2016, we made an annual plan for Daniel, who is being trained to recognize braille alphabets K toT, verbalize in more than three words for his needs, walk using a cane, do household tasks and fold clothes.

Today I would like to introduce you to Sheng, unlike most of the other children in St.Nicholas Ah Sheng came to us at the age of 11. He is visually impaired and unable to walk on his own, before coming to St.Nicholas Sheng had 6 years of prior education at a specialized school and has developed basic social and communication skills but lacks cognitive, gross and fine motor skills. But this hasn’t stopped him from being joyful and outgoing, he not only greets his friends but also communicates with the teachers and staff. Due to his age Sheng had already developed the cognitive and language skills that most children at St.Nicholas are not equipped with. This helped the teachers as now they could focus their efforts on helping Sheng build on his motor skills, daily living and cognitive skills, but this wasn’t going to be easy as Sheng is a slow learner.

Over the past 6 months we are proud to announce that Sheng has seen considerable improvement, he can now move himself from the wheelchair to his bed or a chair and is also learning to walk using a frame. With the help of our teachers and trainers he has also been able to work on his fine motor skills and is able to grip objects firmly like toothbrushes or sticks and transfer objects from one container to the next. Skills like these have allowed Sheng to become more independent as he can now put on clothes, take a bath and brush his teeth with minimal supervision.

Seeing this progress we have identified some more complex goals, we believe that in the near future Sheng will be able to identify different textures and also be able to use social words appropriately by reading and judging the situation by himself. The amount of time, attention and quality of education we have been able to give to Sheng would not have been possible without the loving support we get from all of you.

To maximize your impact donate on June the 15^th,Global Giving has $110,000 in availible matching funds. We will get a matching donation of 40% of our all donations that are made within 9:00:01 EDT and 23:59:59 EDT on June 15th.