The Joy of Being with the Deaf Community

Olga teaching craft making to deaf teachers and students

One of the great features of our newly concluded outreach at Kuje and Orodo is the art and craft making training for the Deaf students.

Meet Gabriel, a Beautiful Deaf Student

Gloria Gabriel in between Dr Emma Asonye and Onyeka

I may not be able to change the world all by myself, but I can change the world of one person: with one person at a time, I can come close to changing the entire world. This is the mantra of Save the Deaf and Endangered Languages Initiative (S-DELI.)

Gloria Gabriel 15, is one of the smartest and most beautiful student at the School for the Deaf, Pasali, Kuje Abuja. Like many of her deaf colleagues, she also has challenges with her sight. Research has shown that most deaf people suffer visual impairments more than the hearing population #LifeIsNotFair. Gloria has a pair of reading glasses now, alongside many of her schoolmates and teachers too, courtesy of S-DELI.

Our (S-DELI members) joy knew no bounds when we saw how much improvement these little efforts of ours have made in their lives. Gloria can see and read better now...

Written by Onyeka Onumara, S-DELI Volunteers Coordinator 

The Craft of Deaf Students at Kuje

A building model developed by a deaf student

That model was constructed by a deaf student with little or no training.
Sara wants to become an artist, she has a flair for pottery, as we saw the beautiful things she and her colleagues had made.

Umar wants to be the minister of Agriculture. I was told he loves the farms , and construct implements by himself.

These students are deaf, but that's not their greatest challenge. Their greatest challenge is lack of opportunity to fulfill their dreams.

Deaf students presenting their craft 

 

"Don't push them, encourage them..." Ann Swanson

Ann Swanson addressing the parents and teachers of the Deaf at Kuje, Abuja

"Don't push them (students), encourage them..."
Ann Swanson, delivering a talk and sharing her life experience with teachers at the UBE School for the Deaf, Pasali Kuje, Abuja. Ann takes the class through the challenges and victory of raising a deaf daughter from infancy to a successful adult who today has an MSc. from the best school in the world for the deaf, Gallaudet, and she is running a big business touring the world in adventurous journeys...

I'll be doing a special on Ann Swanson tomorrow, as the programme winds down today. Ann has been a source of motivation and strength for the team all through this one week, am blessed to have met her....

Written by Onumara Onyekachi

S-DELI Appreciates Volunteers from NCCF

NCCF Members at UBE Kuje Schools for the Deaf

A very big thank you to Nigerian Christian Corpers Fellowship (NCCF) for volunteering to assisting us reach these deaf kids educationally and medically...

May your seeds of love for humanity bring forth fruits of abundant blessings, in Jesus name, Amen!

S-DELI Volunteers Coordinator having a chat with NCCF members

The GOTNI Boss, Linus Okorie Attends S-DELI Event

Linus Okorie and the S-DELI Team

We were blessed to have Linus Okorie of GOTNI at our opening ceremony on Monday. Linus is a motivational speaker, who has been influenced over the years by great speakers like (late) Dr Myles Monroe and John Maxwell. 

He has remained consistent in building and motivating young Nigerians from his days in Imo State University to the national and global platform.

Linus Okorie and Onumara Onyeka

Some Facts I Recently Learnt About the Deaf

S-DELI volunteer Mary, interviewing deaf students

In recent time, my passion for the deaf and some other vulnerable groups has received increasing attention in my career, thought and daily planning.

Hearing Impaired Adolescents Excluded From Sexual Health Education

Deaf young people practising a dance for Naija Deaf Got Talent Show

Around 14 per cent of adolescents in Nigeria are hearing impaired, yet their specific sexual and reproductive health needs as young people with a disability have long been ignored.

According to the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (2013), the average age for women at first sexual intercourse is 17.6 years and for men it is 21.1 years. In addition, 23 per cent of adolescent women age 15-19 are either pregnant with their first child or already mothers.

Celebrating World Deaf Week

Being great is a laudable success when you affect the world around. Today is the last day of the World Deaf Week as marked by World Deaf Federation and endorsed by the United Nations.

We blissfully facilitate with the deaf and hearing impaired people in Nigeria and globally as they celebrate their week with enthusaism. 

This year's theme "With sign Language Rights, Our Children Can" truely reflects contemporary deaf rights issue. We are glad the theme is apt and trend oriented.

Great Minds Forum reaffirms its commitment to the deaf cause globally through our mother organisation the S-DELI. 

GMF General Meeting

GMF Group Photo

Every success is a product of well planned and executed program. GMF is still at its infancy, but we now have a clear policy plan to help all of us achieve individual and collective success, if we work together, as a team.
We'll be meeting this Saturday at exactly 10am prompt(First Love Assembly as usual). Prepare your mind for a wonderful interactive session of great minds which will be the peak of the meeting. You don't want to be absent or be told.
We will continue to give us update through our different platforms. Stay connected. We are poised for greatness...