Posts Tagged ‘deaf school’

Helping overcome disability boundaries as a volunteer in Nepal; Irene’s story

At Volunteer Society Nepal we always try to ensure we get the most from our volunteers. We believe everyone has unique skills they can bring to help when they volunteer in Nepal. Few people bring as unique a skill as one of our most recent volunteers from France, Irene. As a trained sign language teacher she has come to volunteer in a deaf school in the ancient city of Bhaktapur.

Having been here for only a week she has already settled into life with her new host family and her new posting. We went to see how she was getting on and found her in front of a classroom of 7 highly focused deaf children signing back and forth to one another. The challenges of this for Irene are significant. She has had to learn to speak Nepali, sign Nepali and also help to teach the children to communicate correctly in English sign language. However, she seemed to be excelling in her new volunteering position. The children also seemed very grateful and were eager to engage with their new teacher.

The opportunity for the deaf children to see someone who has the same hearing difficulties as them, but is able to travel the world, be highly independent and respected is an inspiration. All too often, people with disability issues are not given any opportunity to learn in Nepal. Having a volunteer in Nepal like Irene is of huge importance as it gives these youngsters an idea of what they can achieve and brings them a huge step closer to them achieving their dreams.