The demonstration school for the deaf

Last Wednesday I stayed with another volunteer placed at the demonstration school for the deaf in the north of Kaduna. Deafness is much more common here than in the UK, mainly due to untreated measles, other infections and problems during birth (which normally also occur with brain damage of some description), it is a regular sight that you see people at petrol stations and the motor park coming up to you with signs asking for money.

The demonstration school was set up by a CUSO volunteer about 25 years ago and now through donations boasts a nursery, primary and early secondary school. One of the main problems they face is the stigma of being deaf, as the reasons for being deaf are not generally attributed to medical causes, but moral/spiritual reasons, as such having a deaf child can be seen as shameful and most kids are not brought to the school until the parents have tried everything. The attitude to disabled people here is not ideal and most deaf people are unable to get jobs, hence the high numbers of beggars.

The below crazy Dutch person is the current volunteer at the deaf school and is a sucker for punishment as she has been in Kaduna for 3 years. She is modelling some of Nigeria’s finest clothing...

A typical class, most of the teachers at the school are deaf themselves and all classes are done in sign language. A real problem for deaf children is spelling, as they cannot vocalise the word in their head and work out the spelling from this. Boards with spellings and signs on are everywhere to help with this!

(Apologies about the dust on the lens)

Here is the nursery class, when you think about the logistics of teaching kids who cant heat you realise how much we take the concept of language for granted. Here they actually have to teach the idea of verbal/written/signed communication, and having access to specialist teaching early to do this is needed, but too often not the case.

Children with a new teacher acting out everyday scenarios, and being reminded to say “please”, “thankyou”, anything at all really!

I got a quick sign language lesson. I can now say good morning, goodbye (just wave) , nice to meet you, science, car and motorbike (the last 2 are quite obvious as well and have me making “brum brum” sound effects).

Some top quality government intervention below, as NEPA (electricity) is rubbish infrequent the school was given some solar panels about a year ago. Solar panels was what the government said it would provide and that is exactly what they were given, no connecting wires, converter etc . They have are trying to get funding for all the extra kit required to make them useful, but in the mean time leaving very expensive unused solar panels around resulted in a load being pinched.

This is an example of a really well run, interactive school. However this is one of only two deaf schools in Kaduna, the disability rate here is estimated to be 10%, so even if only a tiny fraction of those with disabilities where deaf there would still need to be lots more. Visiting here gives me a great feeling of things being done to improve to lives of those here, but it brings home the fact that in this country your pretty unlikely to receive a decent education if you are a boy and fully able, being disabled makes it a million times harder.

Although it would be “service delivery” which is a big no-no (its not sustainable don’t you know) i want to try and help out here were possible (mainly as it will make me feel like I’m actually helping in some tangible way). For now my role is chief assistant to the assistant chief, in charge of trying to build a solar oven at some point over the next couple of weeks and website setting up. Also I have been drafted in to teach rugby, I just need to find the correct shaped ball!

Also here are some cute photos of Monique’s kittens, experiments with pieces of string show that it is possible for kittens to get dizzy . The one at the back's son is now my kitten! (as of march 2010) looks very similar.