Family matters…

…a lot to deaf children. As our organisation was set up by and is governed by parents of deaf children we are committed to working through families to reach deaf children. But in developing countries, families have so many different priorities… getting money, getting food, where to live, someone’s sick …the daily grind means that a child’s deafness is the last thing to worry about. For example in Kenya, one adult in five fails to meet their basic food needs every day. In the same country we did research that showed families were unwilling to pay school/medical fees for their deaf kids because they didn’t believe they would get the same return on their investment as with their other children.

At Deaf Child Worldwide, we believe that situation can change. There are practical steps that can be taken to help families support their deaf children and give them equal opportunities with others at home. The answer is to make sure families understand that their deaf children are capable of going to school and getting employment…make sure families have the ability to communicate with their kids and know about what organisations are out there to support them. Outreaching to families who know nothing about deafness is a key objective of our organisation – making services accessible to families is a personal passion too – that’s why I worked with the Enabling Education Network to produce a book Family Friendly! Working with deaf children and their communities worldwide It’s an action learning toolkit filled with real life case studies of what our partners and others have done to make sure families are able to support their deaf children… You can download it here or e-mail me at info@deafchildworldwide.org to get a paper or CD Rom copy…