Education and family support for Rajeshwari
- Country:
- India
- Organisations involved:
- Samuha-Samarthya
- Synopsis:
-
Rajeshwari is a deaf girl. She is about 9 years old. She lives in the house with her maternal grandmother, her mother’s brother and his family, along with her own younger brother. She does not live with her own parents since there are no education facilities in her home village.
This is a road in Jallahalli village in Raichur district of the southern state - Karnataka, which leads to Rajeshwari’s house. Raichur is about 400km from the state capital, Bangalore and Jallihalli about 75km from Raichur.
Rajeshwari’s aunt and her younger brother seen at the entrance to the house, going about their daily chores.
Rajeshwari sits with her grandmother.
Rajeshwari was identified as being hearing impaired at three years old. At that time the family did not know anything about deafness or how they could make the situation better for Rajeshwari. They attended a clinic held by Samuha-Samarthya and were told to go to Mysore (a city approximately 200km away) for a hearing aid. The family, being quite poor, felt that it would be expensive to travel so far and did not go.
Rajeshwari finally got her first hearing aid in 2001, through a camp held in Koppel (the adjoining district), 3 years after the identification of her hearing impairment.Rajeshwari with the hearing aid she got from the Mysore Institute of Speech and Hearing.
She wears her aid for only 2 hours before going to school and 4 hours after returning from school. She does not wear the aid to school as the other children pull it off and the teachers recommended that she not bring it for fear of damage.
Repair of hearing aids is very difficult since they live so far away from anywhere with repair and maintenance facilities. The closest would be Mysore.
Initially, teachers did not want to admit Rajeshwari in school since she could not speak. They told her family to take her to a special school. The staff of Samuha were able to convince the school authorities to keep her in school through awareness videos for teachers and peers.
She learns through the oral method of communication and her grandmother works consistently with her on the guidance provided by field staff from Samuha-Samarthya. She has reasonable speech which her family, mainly her grandmother, understand. She can also lip read her grandmother reasonably well and often turns to her for explanation.
Seen in the picture above is the social worker helping Rajeshwari with speech, in the presence of her grandmother. Her grandmother takes immense personal interest in her development and guides Rajeshwari with her speech and listening.
Her grandmother is also a member of the local self-help group for disabled people, which is now an independent body.
The challenge now lies in bridging the communication gap between Rajeshwari and the rest of her family, especially her parents whom she sees only once a week and who cannot follow her speech.
The staff will be holding another awareness session at the school for peers and teachers so that Rajeshwari can wear her aid to school.
