Restore Hope for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

We recently visited Michael an 18-year-old who has never relented on pursuing his dream of becoming a medical doctor. Michael is not only living positively with HIV/AIDS but is also epileptic. He is the eldest of 5 siblings and are living with their single mother (sited with him in the photo attached) who is also illiterate, unemployed and depends on small scale farming to meet the daily needs.

While Michael is committed to pursue his dream despite his health conditions, he has another challenge of hearing and says he cannot hear anything in class that the teacher says.

‘’I mostly sit in front in the class so that I can see the movement of the teachers’ lips then later try to relate with the notes I copy from my classmates BUT its hard, I wish I could also hear by myself what the teacher says. Even When I sit in front of the class, the teacher always tells me to go behind because they fear my epilepsy disease will attack me when the lesson is going on and will interrupt the lesson, I feel sad of my situation BUT I know God will not let me down, one day I will become whom I dream of’’.

True Resilience is defined by how persistent you are even in the most difficult moments. This is exactly what Michael has Shown that despite all the ordeals, he has never been absent from school and despite failing to pass his current class/level/grade for the past 3 years, he opted to repeat the same class for 3 years now and says he will not quit untill he passes to the next class/level/grade. To Michael ''Its only because I can't hear the teachers while they are teaching that I fail BUT am not foolish or stupid as other pupils and teachers call me'.

Michael was not born Deaf but the mother says he started to lose his hearing at the age of 5 years after he developed epilepsy.