Samuha-Samarthya
Our work with Samuha-Samarthya is extending the support that Samuha provides for deaf children and their families.
Need for the project
Samuha-Samarthya is a CBR programme which runs in the rural districts of Raichur, Koppal and Uttara Kannada. By working in these communities, Samuha has found that deaf children are some of the most marginalised individuals in Indian society. Stigmatised due to lack of communication skills, they are often not able to participate in community life or self-help activities. They are not included in integrated programmes in schools and remain marginalised and ignored. Families can offer a huge amount of support to their children, but they lacking awareness and burdened by many other priorities, this rarely becomes a reality.
Project aims:
The project aims to:
- provide home-based support to families with deaf children
- facilitate the establishment of parent support groups where parents can find out more about deafness, receive training in sign language and effective communication strategies as well as support each other.
Project activities
- Home-based visits & follow up to include hearing assessment and testing, information and support for families and one-to-one language/communication development for deaf children
- Language and communication development training camps for parents
- Sign language programme for all staff
- Five staff to attend additional external training and exposure visits to build up their knowledge and experience of successful approaches to working with deaf children and their families
- Fortnightly village meetings to raise awareness of deaf issues
- The development and dissemination of awareness materials focussing on the rights of deaf children and adults and aiming to promote the inclusion of deaf people in existing panchayat level self help groups.
