Hearing Impairment
October 2012
In just one day in October 2012, the Trustees met 29 children attending a hearing clinic in one of the outlying villages. Many of these children were profoundly deaf and did not go to school at all. We were told that teachers at mainstream schools had had no special training to help children with hearing difficulties. The children did not understand the teachers and made little progress. They either became very frustrated because they could not communicate, or very withdrawn. They were often bullied because other children saw them as ‘different’. Special Needs specialist Peter Ogera has worked hard with teachers in mainstream schools to encourage them to integrate children with special needs. There has been some success and our coordinator, Billy, has reported that several hearing impaired children who were ‘wild before school, had no social interaction and were throwing stones’ are now accepted and beginning to become more involved in school.
The Trustees decided to fund the fees for four of these children to attend a special boarding school for the hearing impaired in Ngora, one of only three such schools in Uganda. They started their new school on Feb 4th 2013 and are getting on very well. They are being taught how to use signing for communication before attending normal lessons. The cost for each child is about £250 a year. The children were selected on the basis that they had loving, caring families who would provide all the additional support needed and would really benefit from the special school.
Regular sponsorship is urgently needed to give these children the education they deserve. Your help, however small, would be so welcome. There are so many more deaf children whose lives could be transformed.
Peter
Peter
Mary
Our co-ordinator Billy reports that Mary used to be ‘aggressive, isolated, unkempt, uncared for and not attending school’. Through Global Challenge Mary has been given a set of symbols to help her communicate and her mother has received education and counselling on how to care for her ‘special’ daughter. She has now started state school but in a large class with children much younger than her. There was great excitement when she enrolled at her new school in Ngora with her family.
Seline
Seline is thirteen years old and has just begun to use symbols supplied by Global Challenge. She used to be very unhappy and angry but is now much calmer.
Sarah
Sarah is profoundly deaf and is so happy to be going to her new school. She has been in class two, the second of nine classes in her state primary school and with children much younger than her, which is upsetting.
August 2013
In August 2013 the Trustees visited the School for the Deaf and met with teachers and our four sponsored children. These four pupils are all in the same class and learning to sign. At present they are in a class with students much younger than themselves as they need to ‘catch up’ on their learning to sign, but they are all progressing well.
Their daily routine starts at 6.00am when they clean the dormitories followed by assembly from 8.00-8.30am, followed by teaching until 10.30am then breakfast of porridge. After more lessons lunch was posho and beans at 12.30pm.
Trustees had the privilege of watching a maths lesson with one of the top classes. We also visited workshops where carpentry and tailoring are taught to children who did not get good enough grades to go onto secondary school, giving them life skills for their future independence. Some pupils had been at the school since nursery age and now had jobs there.
Our Four Sponsored Children – 2014
The children are all making good progress and very happy. Trustee John was shown Seline’s report when he visited the family – she is doing very well.