Deaf Association’s Work

The Hearing teachers of the Deaf told me about their funding, obstacles, and future goals for Aden’s Deaf Education. The Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of the Deaf and Mute (Deaf Association) is a government funded association under Yemen’s Ministry of Social Affairs with the responsibility to provide Deaf Education to Aden’s Deaf students in Public schools.

With minimal funding from the government, the Deaf Association educates and empowers children who would otherwise be lost in a society which does not have a space for them. The Deaf Association often creates spaces in society for Deaf students and adults: deaf students have access to sports and chess teams, and deaf adults can work in carpentry and sewing workshops. The Deaf Association uses its minimal government funding to facilitate a Deaf classroom with a signing teacher in one public school in each major neighborhood in Aden.

Each Deaf classroom is unique in its compellation of students, materials, and experience of the teacher. Some classrooms I visited held students of different ages and learning levels together; others might have three different age groups in one room, separated by a sheet hanging down from the ceiling; and others may be instructed by a struggling teacher who is far from fluent in YSL. In all the classrooms I visited and all the situations I witnessed: the teachers float around the room with animated faces and positively encouraged the deaf students, the students raised their hands and eagerly competed to answer the teacher’s question first, and there is present a sense of persistence looking towards the future.