Giving Hope to the Deaf

Executive Summary

The problem of communication between the deaf and the hearing is wide and real in our present society.
Given the grim facts on the literacy needs of the deaf and the need to include of the deaf in the development agenda it makes it needful and urgent to provide the necessary infrastructure for the education of the deaf and for the increasing of the sensitization of the hearing community into the plight of the deaf.
MoCeDET enters the scene to address this need by setting up the infrastructure for attainment of best education for the deaf and to teach Kenya Sign Language (KSL), to the hearing to foster better understanding between the hearing and the deaf in Africa.
MoCeDET also realizes the vastness of its mandate and therefore incorporates a trust to fundraise for its programmes and also for the support of less privileged students and development of targeted support projects for other like minded organizations in the region.

Problem Statement

According to the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) – an international non-governmental body and UN spokes-organization for the deaf - the story of the deaf is a sad tale of abandonment. This gory tale is made more tear jerking when one is born in the developing world. Here are the disturbing statistics according to WFD:
1. Less than one-fifth of all deaf people in poor nations receive little if any education.
2. Most deaf people in poor nations cannot read their own name.
3. Most deaf people in developing nations cannot count to 10.
4. Unemployment rates in the deaf community are high.
4.1. Many developing nations deny basic human rights to their deaf and hard of hearing citizens.
4.2. At least 26 nations do not permit their deaf citizens to earn a driver's license.
4.3. A few nations have put legal limits on the rights of deaf people to marry and raise the family they choose.
4.4. Deaf people in some developing nations do not have the right to vote in elections.
Illiteracy levels among the deaf are alarmingly high and there hearing population has remained extremely ignorant of the plight of the deaf.
Hence the need for an institution to address both the basic and tertiary level education for the deaf while at the same time bridging the communication gap between the hearing and the non – hearing and also conducting research on the best and most efficient methods of learning where there is hearing impairment.

Right from the time when Kenya gained her independence from Britain in 1963, the participation of the deaf in the country’s socio-economic-religion and political set-up the deaf has been regrettably minimal.
They are completely shut out from the country’s democratic and development spheres. While in recent years friendly legislation and policy has been made to adequately cater for the needs of the disabled, little has been done to remedy the inequalities of the past let alone of the present. Though the number of the deaf has significantly grown in the last four decades, the infrastructure and facilities catering for them have not been commensurate to their needs.
The only time the plight of the deaf came into light was during the Constitutional of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC) deliberations, where it was noted:
“People with disabilities are unable to seek redress or challenge discriminatory laws and practices. Even when they are underpaid, overworked, harassed at places of work, denied opportunity to education, thrown out from public institutions, and denied the right to do national examinations lest their marks lower the national standing of a district, can’t seek redress for lack of money, unable to seek the services of interpreters”
After the CKRC came to an end with the 2005 Referendum, issues pertaining to the deaf and the disabled in general, were swept under the carpet. Sadly this is the reality, more than four decades since independence.
These are further compounded by lack of enough educational outlets and general awareness creation.