• Home
• About us
  • Current vacancies
  • Contact us
  • Vision & values
  • Approach
  • History
  • 
• Where we work
  • South Asia
  • East Africa
  • Latin America
  • Small Grants Programme
  • 
• Childhood deafness
  • The ear
  • What is sound?
  • Types of deafness
  • Causes of deafness
  • 
• Learning from experience
  • Project case studies
  • Resource library
  • Real Lives
  • 
• News and Events
  • UN adopts Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  • Events
  • Press releases
  • News links
  • 
• How you can help
• Our network

This was the second in the series of the Towards a new horizon seminars and was held in Ichapur. The participants were drawn from the 24 Parganas (North), Nadia and parts of Serampore of Hooghly district.

The outcomes of the discussions of groups of participants from more rual areas were different from those outlined in the Kolkata seminar.

• Deaf adults particularly highlighted a lack of public awareness and a vulnerability to sexual exploitation as a key issue
• Young people from special schools highlighted low self-esteem and concern about their future employment
• Young people in mainstream school highlighted a lack of effective communication in the school environment as their main concern
• Parents of young adults highlighted a lack of family communication and the challenges of helping their children through adolesence as key areas.
• Parents of pre school children were more concerned with the affordability of hearing aids, the lack of pre school services.

Deaf school children watching their interpreter

In order to meet the challenges of

• Loneliness, feeling of isolation and inferiority
• Discrimination or other negative behaviour from hearing people
• Lack of communication skill
• Lack of necessary service infrastructure

The group agreed on the need to:

• Increase of awareness among general people.
• Develop communication skills of deaf children and their families
• Increase awareness and sensitivity about deafness among teachers and other staff of general schools and social organisations.
• Take legal action when required.
• Increase interaction, exchange and communication between adolescents and young adults with hearing impairment with local social organisations.
• Create opportunities for children and persons with hearing impairment to interact with people in general.
• Enhance the quality and quantity of services and infrastructure for children with hearing impairment.

Read more by downloading the full report Ichapur seminar - report in English (156 kb) .