Restore Hope for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

Rose is a 16 year old girl with partial hearing impairment right from her birth. She had been home without going to school for the last 2 years as her father did not consider it important to take her for education given her disability. ''My father calls me a lunatic'', so he does not value me being in school. ''I have a striong desire to be in school and become a teacher so that I can teach other children like me''.  Rose was excited when we registered her for school and on her first day in class she could not help but to write on the chalk board to express her excitement. ''I had lost hope of education, I knew my dreams to become a teacher for deaf children was dead''. She was grateful that we came a long with her to support her with whatever she needed to enrol in school again. Because of being at home for too long, Rose was enrolled back to Primary Four (P.4) at Katakwi Primary School.

Rose is among the 10 children with hearing impairment that we are currently enrolling in school in Katakwi District. Children with hearing impairment face lots of discrimination fromfamily, friends and community as they are generaly considered dense. Rose lost her mother while still 5 years and has been living with her father together with 3 other siblings. She is the second born child. Unfrotunately because of her disability, her father decided not to educate her but take other  siblings to school. Her role has been to keep the home and prepare food for other siblings who are at school.

Like those with other disabilities, children with hearing impairment are considered a curse and therefore highly neglected among many communities nto just in Katakwi but in most parts of Uganda.

Catherine is an 8 year old girl who cooks her own food and takes care of herself despite the having hearing challenges. We recently provided Catherine with nutritious porridge flour (mix of soya, millet, peanut and maize) along with other personal besics like soap, sugar, and salt. Its these items that have given Catherine and the mother reason to live and be hopeful again. 

Catherine was abandined by the father upon realizing she had hearing problems and also had mental problem. She is now living with her mother in a remote village called Akwarekia in Katakwi district where they survive by Gods grace. Each day, the mother says begins with no hope ''BUT by Gods grace we go through it'', she says. Some times, I go to the bushes to gather lives and fruits for us to eat and sleep and i have to live Catherine behind worried she might disappear but i have nothing to do than to hand everything to God, the mother adds.

When we visited Catherine and the mother ayt their home and provided them with an assortment of food and other basic needs, Cathy as she is commonly called coud not wait but to quickly make porridge with her make shift 3 stone fire. ''Today God has heard and answered our prayer'', Ctaherine says as she prepared her porridge.

Children with hearing challenges are generally considered a curse in many communities of Uganda and when the fathers realise the child is deaf, often they abandon the marriage/relationship and live the mother to struggle with the child alone. These children end up misising on education, condeming them to poverty, malnutrition and poor health.

Its your generosity that helps us reach out to children like Cathy and many others who need a hand of help to give them a hope and purpose to live.

Thank you for your generosity and please would you spread the word with your friends and family by sharing our project link

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/restore-hope-for-deaf-and-hard-of-hearing-children/

David

Links:

• Project Link