Dear Friends,
For families of deaf children, a lifelong learning journey has its many challenges. Parents struggle to communicate with their children amidst feelings of isolation, frustration, and misunderstanding in and outside the home. Our team’s research in a three-year project under GPE KIX that we call Scaling Inclusive Early Learning with Deaf Learners has a deliberately experimental component that ventures into the delicate world of family dynamics. With our friends from Royal Dutch Kentalis who have been doing work in deaf education for 235 years (yes, 235), we designed and held two weeks of workshops in Nairobi that involved deaf teachers, parents of deaf children, and colleagues from Rwanda and Malawi to open ways into working together.
The Parents Awareness Workshop aimed to empower parents by opening up communication in sign language and forming relationships for sustained learning and mutual support. Our project’s major premise is that creating sign language rich environments is one high impact way to make learning and life chances more accessible and engaging for deaf children. Foundational language acquisition on a path to literacy is central. The research also aims to unpack the how of scaling sign language rich environments in Kenya, Rwanda and Malawi. The sessions provided a platform for parents and teachers to share personal experiences, fostering solidarity. Parents expressed gratitude for the opportunity to learn and connect with others facing similar challenges. Teachers also appreciated the time. As one remarked, “It’s incredible to see parents learning alongside us. When they understand their child’s world, the whole community benefits.”
Among the deaf and hearing people who participated, Georgine Auma, Director of Studio KSL at eKitabu and a role model in the Deaf community, shared her journey after becoming deaf at age nine. Georgine highlighted the critical importance of first learning sign language—urging parents to see sign language as the foundation for inclusion and connection. Georgine’s story, and the stories of other colleagues, for example, Pascasie Masengesho, Yves Dushimimana, Vincent Owino, Dorice Kachipela, and Leah Nguata challenge myths and misconceptions about deafness. They exemplify how parents can be advocates for their children. Some parents believe that their child’s deafness was a curse, or that marrying a Deaf person will produce deaf children. Open discussions are the only way to dispel such myths, encouraging parents to embrace their child’s uniqueness and creating safe spaces for all to share setbacks, triumphs, and experiences raising deaf children. In these discussions we were privileged to have with us our esteemed friends from the Kenya Federation of Deaf Women’s Empowerment Network (FEDWEN), whose expertise in adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights brings essential perspective.
Stronger partnerships between parents and teachers are laying a foundation for better support of deaf learners. The initiative and the research around it will grow in 2025 with community visits, sign language instruction, more Parents Awareness Workshops, new learning resources, and fostering collaboration between families and schools. As we begin to end this year, we look forward to 2025 with enthusiasm and expectation of good.
Warmest regards,
Will