Escaping isolation

Education and integration for deaf children in Ethiopia

Without the proper education and training, deaf children have tremendous difficulty communicating with their families and other people around them, which means that in most cases they can not lead independent lives. As a result, they generally live in a state of social isolation. In poverty-stricken countries such as Ethiopia, these children generally do not have access to proper medical care or (school) education; they have no means of communicating with others around them, not to mention prospects of productive work. This results in a high mortality rate.
LIGHT FOR THE WORLD supports people in developing countries who have been pushed to the fringe of society due to their disabilities.

Am Anfang lernen alle Kinder die Gebärdensprache.

In Ethiopia, a group of concerned people have come together to promote communication and integration, primarily through integrated schooling.
The project also aims to combat preventable hearing impairment by raising awareness as well as providing education and information, to carry out extensive rehabilitation measures at an early stage, and to promote the full social integration of hearing-impaired and deaf people.

LIGHT FOR THE WORLD supports a school in Addis Ababa where deaf children attend classes with children who can hear. The school consists of 10 classes and 332 pupils, of which 195 are deaf and 137 can hear.

Bethelehem and her mother can talk in sign language now.

At the very outset, all of the children learn sign language, and in the first few weeks a relative accompanies each deaf child so that a family member can also learn to communicate with him or her.
Classes in all subjects are then taught in both spoken and sign language.
This inclusive system has definitely proven its worth: The deaf children can follow the teachers in sign language and by reading their lips, while the hearing children receive visual as well as auditory stimuli.
Moreover, the deaf children also receive an education which will allow them to live a self-sufficient life as well as providing a better chance of social integration, as integrated schooling turns interaction with hearing people into an everyday experience.

Bethelehem Merga (7)

One of the children whose life has been changed permanently by this school is 7-year old Bethelehem Merga, who was born deaf. She used to lead a highly isolated and lonely life, and the people around her had a difficult time communicating with her.
They conversed "using their hands and feet", and their communication was confined to an absolute minimum.
Now that Bethelehem Merga has learned sign language, she can communicate with the people around her and has many friends, both deaf and hearing, from school.
What was inconceivable for this happy, lively girl in the first seven years of her life has now become a matter of course:
chatting. laughing, playing and learning with others.