Give Mobility: Wheelchairs for Nicaraguan Children

In Special Families sometimes we find that our different handicaps complement each other. In our wheel chair program, we have three men who were born deaf and one young man with Epilepsy. This is a great team because they have learned to work well together. Jordi had to learn sign language in order to work with the other three.  But there is much more to learn in working with people who are deaf.  He needed to learn about the deaf culture.  He needed to understand how they react to jokes how they feel affirmed in their work and how they feel rejected. At the same time our psychologist Heimy had to work with the deaf not only about how to work in a team with others but how to communicate beyond signs.  For instance, the deaf speak more directly about body defects than those with hearing and this often causes offense.  For the deaf person it is no big deal but for hearing they feel terribly rejected and offended.  Sign language is a real language and system of communication.  So in the workshop the young people needed extra support to learn how to react to one another.  This happened by sessions with Heimy and is continuing with the new coordinator who is also a psychologist. He however has to learn more about the deaf culture. In Nicaragua the deaf culture is very strong and it is the first country to have its own dictionary of signs.

What often happens is that many of the social and personal problems of the deaf are not addressed because people get stuck on only learning the language.  It was a wonderful experience for all in our workshop when we did an interview fopr giving Tuesday with Aldo who is deaf, and Heimy translating for him.  It has been hard for Aldo because he did not grow up learning sign language and when he came to work for us we pushed him to learn.  He did not like studying he did not like communicating with others he just wanted to work quietly in a corner with no one disturbing him.  He is very creative and is able to invent a wheel chair out of spare parts.  This is a skill which is really coming in handy for us and for many people.  Everyone commented how Aldo had changed when he was interviewed for Giving Tuesday.  He became animated and started using sign language and had a big smile on his face and even ended the interview with a big sign of thank you and good evening. He is feeling very affirmed in his work and now is feeling affirmed in his communication and the rest of the staff couldn’t be happier. In this report we have included a link for the youtube interview with Aldo it is very short but you can see his happy attitude.

This makes a big difference as the staff has to work with the public and be able to resolve issues of mobility with families which at times can be very sensitive. By working on the communication of both the hearing and the deaf we are making the wheel chair workshop more accessible and affirming more people who have disAbilities that they also can become more independent and feel good about themselves.

Links:

• Interview with Aldo from WC workshop