Serving And Reaching Out

If we have no peace in this world, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to one another.

Most at times, deaf people are sidelined even by Charity Organizations trying to reach out to people with disabilities because of the language barrier.

Deafness is the inability to hear sound partially or totally .

Deafness and Hearing loss have many causes and can occur at any age. People can go deaf suddenly as a complication of a virus, or lose their hearing over time because of disease, nerve damage, or injury caused by noise.

A patient with mild hearing impairment may have problems understanding speech, especially if there is a lot of noise around, while those with moderate deafness may need a hearing aid.

Some people are severely deaf and depend on lip-reading when communicating with others.

People who are profoundly deaf can hear nothing at all.

In order to communicate spontaneously and rapidly with people, they are totally reliant on lip-reading or sign language.

People who are born deaf find lip-reading much harder to learn compared to those who became hearing impaired after they had learnt to communicate orally.

There is a huge difference between deafness and hearing loss.

Hearing loss refers to a diminished ability to hear sounds like other people do, while deafness refers to the inability to understand speech through hearing even when sound is amplified.

Profound deafness means the person cannot hear anything at all; they are unable to detect sound, even at the highest volume possible.

Children living with deafness have been the most affected as it has affected their education.

Most deaf adults in Ghana today have poor literacy skills due to late diagnosis, lack of consistent education and poor resources.

Its high time we introduce Sign Language in all basic schools to better the listening skills and creative thinking of our children.

Since almost all parents of deaf children are not deaf, the need to teach sign language to their parents and guardians must not be underestimated.

The Tetteh Ocloo State School for the deaf in Ashaiman is one of the resourced schools for the hearing impaired within the Greater Accra region. It is a day school with no boarding facilities for both males and females within different age ranges.

As we live in an era where we get overflowed with information daily and reading is the main way to take advantage of it, the pupils of this noble school engaged in a Reading Festival yesterday to exhibit their reading skills.

It was undeniably, a brilliant beautiful spectacle.

We all have a responsibility to change this and make sure that the Government, Parents and School authorities are aware that children with disabilities have the right to go to school.

Written By
Nana Ama Asantewaa Kwarkoh

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