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Maldives News | Minivan News
When Ahmed Ali was just 12 years old, he moved from Raa atoll Agolhitheemu to the capital Male’ where he met another deaf person for the first time. Before, he says, he felt alone and frustrated, unable to communicate with those around him.
Ahmed, 32, left school at a young age and at home, used only very basic sign language to express himself. Now, he works as a labourer at the airport and in his spare time is a financial director at the Maldives Deaf Association (MDA).
The MDA was set up last year with the help of Amaresh Gopalakrishnan, an avuncular teacher at Jamaludheen School, who since arriving from India to the Maldives two years ago, has worked toward establishing a standardised form of sign language.
He towers above the other students as we make our way to the trio of classrooms set aside in the school for deaf pupils. Once settled in the computer room with four other members of the MDA, all deaf, he talks about the forthcoming publication of the Maldives’ deaf dictionary.
“In Male’, we have a mixture of sign language as there’s a difference between the older and younger generation,” says Amaresh. “And this is completely different from the islands where they have just developed a language through their own signs.”
Amaresh, whose parents are both deaf, says that he was hesitant about staying in the Maldives at first. But, the necessity to establish better quality education was greater. “They were in different grades, but students’ thinking capacity was lower than their age,” he says. “It’s nothing to do with them, as they don’t have learning disabilities. It’s just that there are no specially trained teachers.”
He soon discovered that teachers were using a unique form of communication; a blend of their own gesticulations as well as signs learnt from the children and from two dictionaries, one American and one British.
But, says Amaresh, teachers were still under the misconception that they had to use speech to communicate and so would continue to write on a board.
The dictionary, funded by Handicap International, will for the first time provide a resource to deaf people, parents and teachers to allow them to communicate in one standard language. Amaresh says signs from both the atolls and Male’ have been incorporated into the lexicon.
Although due to be published in December 2008, says Ronald Broulette, a consultant from Handicap International, the dictionary, which has taken about a year to compile, has been delayed time and time again. “We are all waiting and wondering why it hasn’t been printed yet?”
Tale to tell
MDA Director Ahmed Ashaaq, 21, is one of the most expressive throughout my interview with Amaresh, making others in the group laugh with his hand motions and animated facial expressions.
He talks to me through Amaresh about the association, which helped bring together many, previously isolated, deaf groups and individuals in Male’. “We had so many issues before to deal with…but since then we have become stronger and we have started awareness programmes to make people know about us.”
Mariyam Rizwana, MDA programme director and teacher at the school, is more reserved in her demeanour. She motions gracefully to Amaresh to convey the solitude she felt as a child. The seventh and only deaf child in her family, she says her mother persisted in speaking with her before discovering her disability.
“I tried to speak but my speech wasn’t good and my mum was always angry at me and told me to be quiet. When I opened my mouth, I didn’t know what I was doing wrong,” she says.
Rizwana moved from Raa atoll Innamaadhoo to Male’ at the age of nine where she was overwhelmed to see other deaf children signing for the first time. Nor has she let her deafness hold her back: she was the first deaf person in the Maldives to complete her O-levels at one of the country’s most prestigious institutions, Aminiya School.
Although terrified of going to the all-hearing school at first, she says, both her mother and the then-principal of Jamaludheen School were adamant. “I used to study all by myself all the subjects,” she says smiling shyly. “I never took tuition and was the first in my class in Grade 8.”
Another member of the association, Ihusana Mohamed, 24, speaks about her husband with girlish excitement. When Amaresh asks where they met, she giggles, clutching her handbag in front of her face to hide her toothy grin, her spectacles poking over the side. Through a friend, she says, slowly, before launching into an exhaustive history of their courtship, motioning frequently to her heart.
Time to party
On the public’s reaction to being deaf, Ashaaq says he says he is often teased when using sign language. “We just ignore them, we are kind of saddened by it but we have also got used to it,” he says.
Teaching the public about deafness is one of the association’s primary objectives, says Amaresh, and this Friday, the group will be hosting a Deaf Fest at Jamaludheen School, to raise both funds and awareness.
“It’s the first time we’ve organised something like this,” says Ashaaq. “It’s important for deaf people to gain confidence to know that they can do it. We also want the general public to come and learn about us and see that we are normal people like them.”
Amaresh says the MDA hopes to use the funds to form a travelling theatre group to visit islands across the Maldives and teach the public about deafness, and the challenges faced by deaf people, as well as to inform deaf people about the help available to them.
Supported throughout much of their development, Broullette says Handicap International is proud of the MDA for successfully organising the Deaf Fest entirely on their own. “They have grown up into adolescence and this is their party,” he says.
When Ahmed Ali was just 12 years old, he moved from Raa atoll Agolhitheemu to the capital Male’ where he met another deaf person for the first time. Before, he says, he felt alone and frustrated, unable to communicate with those around him.
Ahmed, 32, left school at a young age and at home, used only very basic sign language to express himself. Now, he works as a labourer at the airport and in his spare time is a financial director at the Maldives Deaf Association (MDA).
The MDA was set up last year with the help of Amaresh Gopalakrishnan, an avuncular teacher at Jamaludheen School, who since arriving from India to the Maldives two years ago, has worked toward establishing a standardised form of sign language.
He towers above the other students as we make our way to the trio of classrooms set aside in the school for deaf pupils. Once settled in the computer room with four other members of the MDA, all deaf, he talks about the forthcoming publication of the Maldives’ deaf dictionary.
“In Male’, we have a mixture of sign language as there’s a difference between the older and younger generation,” says Amaresh. “And this is completely different from the islands where they have just developed a language through their own signs.”
Amaresh, whose parents are both deaf, says that he was hesitant about staying in the Maldives at first. But, the necessity to establish better quality education was greater. “They were in different grades, but students’ thinking capacity was lower than their age,” he says. “It’s nothing to do with them, as they don’t have learning disabilities. It’s just that there are no specially trained teachers.”
He soon discovered that teachers were using a unique form of communication; a blend of their own gesticulations as well as signs learnt from the children and from two dictionaries, one American and one British.
But, says Amaresh, teachers were still under the misconception that they had to use speech to communicate and so would continue to write on a board.
The dictionary, funded by Handicap International, will for the first time provide a resource to deaf people, parents and teachers to allow them to communicate in one standard language. Amaresh says signs from both the atolls and Male’ have been incorporated into the lexicon.
Although due to be published in December 2008, says Ronald Broulette, a consultant from Handicap International, the dictionary, which has taken about a year to compile, has been delayed time and time again. “We are all waiting and wondering why it hasn’t been printed yet?”
Tale to tell
MDA Director Ahmed Ashaaq, 21, is one of the most expressive throughout my interview with Amaresh, making others in the group laugh with his hand motions and animated facial expressions.
He talks to me through Amaresh about the association, which helped bring together many, previously isolated, deaf groups and individuals in Male’. “We had so many issues before to deal with…but since then we have become stronger and we have started awareness programmes to make people know about us.”
Mariyam Rizwana, MDA programme director and teacher at the school, is more reserved in her demeanour. She motions gracefully to Amaresh to convey the solitude she felt as a child. The seventh and only deaf child in her family, she says her mother persisted in speaking with her before discovering her disability.
“I tried to speak but my speech wasn’t good and my mum was always angry at me and told me to be quiet. When I opened my mouth, I didn’t know what I was doing wrong,” she says.
Rizwana moved from Raa atoll Innamaadhoo to Male’ at the age of nine where she was overwhelmed to see other deaf children signing for the first time. Nor has she let her deafness hold her back: she was the first deaf person in the Maldives to complete her O-levels at one of the country’s most prestigious institutions, Aminiya School.
Although terrified of going to the all-hearing school at first, she says, both her mother and the then-principal of Jamaludheen School were adamant. “I used to study all by myself all the subjects,” she says smiling shyly. “I never took tuition and was the first in my class in Grade 8.”
Another member of the association, Ihusana Mohamed, 24, speaks about her husband with girlish excitement. When Amaresh asks where they met, she giggles, clutching her handbag in front of her face to hide her toothy grin, her spectacles poking over the side. Through a friend, she says, slowly, before launching into an exhaustive history of their courtship, motioning frequently to her heart.
Time to party
On the public’s reaction to being deaf, Ashaaq says he says he is often teased when using sign language. “We just ignore them, we are kind of saddened by it but we have also got used to it,” he says.
Teaching the public about deafness is one of the association’s primary objectives, says Amaresh, and this Friday, the group will be hosting a Deaf Fest at Jamaludheen School, to raise both funds and awareness.
“It’s the first time we’ve organised something like this,” says Ashaaq. “It’s important for deaf people to gain confidence to know that they can do it. We also want the general public to come and learn about us and see that we are normal people like them.”
Amaresh says the MDA hopes to use the funds to form a travelling theatre group to visit islands across the Maldives and teach the public about deafness, and the challenges faced by deaf people, as well as to inform deaf people about the help available to them.
Supported throughout much of their development, Broullette says Handicap International is proud of the MDA for successfully organising the Deaf Fest entirely on their own. “They have grown up into adolescence and this is their party,” he says.