About Irfan-A bright child with many dreams

Rajimul Islam and Iduta Sarkar were overjoyed when their second baby, Irfan, was born on May 20th, 2011 in the village of Koimari, Dhubri district of Assam. However, when Irfan turned one and a half years old, his parents noticed that he was not speaking like his older brother. A doctor confirmed that he had bilateral severe to profound hearing loss, and the parents procured a hearing aid for him from Kolkata.

Despite Irfan’s hearing aid, his progress in speech and academics was slow. His mother, Iduta, felt helpless until an acquaintance from Guwahati told her about the Government Deaf school. Irfan was enrolled in the school, but he did not show much improvement and was detained in his first year.

Iduta then came across VAANI, an organisation that provides education and support for children with hearing impairments. Irfan joined VAANI in January 2018, and since then, his receptive and expressive language levels have progressed significantly. He can now read and write short sentences and has developed the skill to answer questions.

Mother Iduta has been a proactive parent and regularly attends VAANI’s Individualised Educational Plan (IEP) sessions and training workshops. She has learned how to support her child’s pre-reading, reading, writing, and math skills at home and also acquired sign language and speech stimulation techniques.

Irfan has a keen interest in drawing, playing badminton, and attending computer sessions at VAANI. He has learned how to use painting tools like TUX Paint and is slowly mastering them. His progress has motivated his mother to bring in more parents of younger children with hearing impairments to VAANI.

Iduta says, “VAANI has taught me everything, right from understanding all the issues of deafness to acquiring communication skills to communicate with Irfan and support him in his academics.” Irfan’s progress is a testament to the importance of early intervention and the support of organisations like VAANI in providing a brighter future for children with hearing impairment.

Meet Neshat Faraha- An inspiring example of how early intervention and support can help children with hearing loss achieve their full potential

Neshat Faraha was born into a humble family residing in the small village of Itinda in North 24 Parganas. Her father, Saddam Ali Gazi, is a garment designer, while her mother, Muslima Parvin, takes care of the household chores. At just eight days old, Neshat was diagnosed with chickenpox, high fever, and diarrhoea, which made her very sick. Her parents didn’t realize that Neshat was also experiencing hearing problems until she was two and a half years old and still not speaking like other children her age.

After consulting with an ENT specialist, Neshat’s parents were referred to the National Institute of Hearing Handicapped (NIHH) Ban Hooghly for a BERA test, which confirmed that she had moderate to severe hearing loss. The doctors recommended hearing aids and speech therapy, which Neshat’s parents struggled to provide due to the distance from their village to the clinic.

Fortunately, Muslima Bibi, a VAANI community mobilizer and mother of two older children with hearing impairment, met Neshat’s mother and introduced her to VAANI, an organization that provides speech and hearing services to children with hearing loss.

For over a year now, Neshat has been attending VAANI’s Sadhan Center, where she has made remarkable progress in her communication skills, pre-reading, pre-writing, pre-maths, social behaviour, and motor skills. Before joining the centre, Neshat had very little speech and refused to communicate with others, but with VAANI’s speech stimulation sessions, she learned to speak and communicate using both speech and sign language without hesitation.

Neshat’s writing skills have also improved, and she can now write Bengali alphabets and copy words. In terms of math, she knows a few pre-math concepts, can rote count, write up to 40, and has begun understanding value counting up to 10. Additionally, her social behavior has improved, and she now makes eye contact, communicates with teachers and staff at the center, and holds a pen or pencil correctly.

Neshat attends the Anganwadi Centre close to her home and enjoys colouring and drawing. She even participated in a drawing competition during Deaf Awareness Week. Her mother, Muslima, is thrilled with Neshat’s progress and is grateful for VAANI’s support. Muslima says that before joining VAANI, she did not know that Neshat’s hearing problem was the reason for her speech issues. She has learned many signs that help her communicate with Neshat when she doesn’t understand spoken language.

Neshat is progressing well, and her mother is grateful to Mriganka Sir and VAANI for their continuous guidance and support. She hopes to provide the best possible support to Neshat as she prepares to join a formal school soon. Neshat’s case story is an inspiring example of how early intervention and support can help children with hearing loss achieve their full potential.

Meet Mahadeb Roy

Mahadeb Roy was born in the village of Fakdaibari in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, to parents Manik and Dipali Roy. His father is a mason and his mother helps in various households with her cooking skills. During her pregnancy, Dipali suffered from measles, which resulted in Mahadeb being born with a delayed birth cry. However, no one from the family paid much attention to this, and they did not think it would have any effect on the baby.

As Mahadeb grew older, his mother noticed that he was not uttering initial words like other children his age. She was told by other mothers that speech delays were common, so Dipali waited for her son to speak at a later age. However, a year passed and Mahadeb still did not utter a word. It was then that his parents took him to the Jalpaiguri Government Hospital and the North Bengal Medical College hospital, where they were informed that Mahadeb had bilateral profound Sensory Neural Hearing Loss.

The doctors suggested using hearing aids and speech therapy, and while the family managed to arrange a pocket model hearing aid for Mahadeb, they were unable to access speech therapy sessions due to its unavailability in their area. When Mahadeb was about 4 years old, he was admitted to the North Bengal Special School. Later on, VAANI community mobilizer Geeta Kundu met Mahadeb’s parents and introduced them to the Sadhan Centre at Dabgram in Siliguri.

After joining VAANI, Mahadeb’s progress was remarkable. He was previously limited to picture-to-picture matching, but he can now read words, phrases, and short sentences meaningfully. He can also write words, phrases, and sentences independently, and he knows value counting and can do three-digit addition and subtraction with carryover. Moreover, his communication skills have improved, and he can now communicate in short sentences using signs of words. He can also describe pictures and communicate simple stories using signs and little speech.

Mahadeb’s mother, Dipali, has also learned a lot from attending VAANI workshops. She was not aware that hearing loss could affect communication and language development. The workshops have helped her understand deafness and all the related issues. Dipali has learned to use proper signs and both signs and speech to communicate with her son. She has also attended sessions on child sexual abuse, which have made her aware of her child’s vulnerability to abuse and how she can help him prevent it.

Mahadeb is now in class IV and aspires to work on a computer when he grows up. His mother hopes to fulfill his wish with the support and guidance of VAANI. Dipali says that coming to VAANI has opened new doors for her and Mahadeb. Seeing the progress her son has made after joining VAANI has given her a lot of hope for his future.

Syed Wishes To Become a Police Officer

Syed Uzair, a smart, confident, eight and half years old kid is perhaps impressed with the respect and authority which a Police Officer carries and aspires for it. What a transformation from a shy, mother-clinging three-and-a-half-year-old hearing-impaired child, who in 2017 came to VAANI Tumkur Centre, Karnataka!

Syed was born to the parents Suheel and Heena on 5th June 2014. One day, Heena’s brother switched on loud music, trying to excite the six-month-old baby into a playful mood. However, the shocking total absence of a response from Syed planted a suspicion of a hearing problem.

Heena and Suheel (a daily wage Driver), ran around to find out if they could have their son tested at a low cost. They could not manage it until Syed was three and a half years old. The test at the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore, confirmed that Syed has Bilateral Sensory Neural Profound Hearing Loss.

Heena came across a parent whose Hearing Impaired child was attending sessions at VAANI Tumkur Centre, Karnataka. Heena registered Syed therein, in April 2017. He was a restless child with very minimal gesture communication. Due to poor motor coordination, he could only scribble. He had neither any pre-reading (recognising pictures, alphabets etc), reading, or writing skills, nor any understanding of numbers. He even avoided other kids at the centre.

VAANI helped him in getting a Hearing Aid and worked on his speech stimulation sessions. Syed also began attending Hellen Keller Special School at Jayanagar in Tumkur, Karnataka.

As of today, Syed communicates with signs, has picked up some speech, is able to read and write words, copy-write sentences, performs basic addition/subtraction, and likes drawing as well as dancing. He is quite an at ease with his peers and greets everyone. His mother feels his growing confidence and becoming an independent responsible child.

VAANI sessions have not only impacted Syed but also his mother Heena. It was a great solace to her as Syed began to understand language. Like most people, she was also unaware that deafness causes language development and communication problems, and hurts confidence resulting in social isolation. From a baffled mother running helter-skelter to find the right path, Heena has transformed into a proactive mother raising community awareness about deafness issues and the importance of sign language.

“Heena has truly become our community leader”

Meet Dipankar

“Dipankar said ‘Maa’ first, when he was 5 years old”

Dipankar was born on April 24, 2014, to Purabi and Jitumoni Deka living in Nalbari District of Assam. One day, Purabi Deka was busy washing clothes and two-year-old Dipankar was playing nearby. Suddenly he started moving towards the door so Purabi loudly called him to stop. However, Dipankar did not even look at her and kept on moving, so she had to get up and pick him up.

This had been happening often. Dipankar would respond only if he could see the person. He had not even started blabbering. If he wanted to communicate something, he would make strange gestures, which others would not always understand. All this made his parents worried. On consulting the doctor in their hometown of Nalbari, they got Dipankar tested for BERA (Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry) at Guwahati. Unfortunately, it indicated that Dipankar has Bilateral Severe Hearing Loss and would have to use a hearing aid. The aid was procured through a Government camp. But probably they were not able to handle it properly and did not help much. Dipankar used to get irritated as well.

Purabi’s difficulties were accentuated when her husband Jitumoni passed away the next year and she had to carry the whole burden. She could not afford Speech Therapy and costly medical technology. Dipankar’s grandfather came to know about the VAANI centre at Guwahati and Purabi came to us in April 2019.

We found that Dipankar has not acquired any speech, used his own gestures for communication, and was shy. Difficulties in communicating with others naturally resulted in avoiding people.

As for comprehension, Dipankar was good at joining dots, colouring, and picture recognition. But he could not read words, had no writing skills, and had no concept of number values.

Purabi enrolled Dipankar on Educational and Speech Intervention at VAANI. Today Dipankar is in class III at Government School for Deaf, Kahilipara, Guwahati, Assam.

Mother Purabi’s words aptly summarise the story, “VAANi sessions enabled my son to say ‘Maa’ and I had tears in my eyes, the first time I heard it. That was the new start! I could not regularly attend speech sessions. So I also learnt sign language with Dipankar. It has not only improved our communication but I am able to help him in his studies. Moreover, VAANI has helped me understand the dangers lurking in such differently-abled children and how to teach them safety rules.”

Today Dipankar is a confident, socially active, playful boy. He aspires to be a Teacher and VAANI will be with him.

Building A Community Leader

Muslima Bibi From Malancha

This is the story of a mother who left no stone unturned to give her deaf children an education. Muslima, VAANI and their supporters made a miraculous change in a small village in Malancha. We are sure that every village in India can see such a heart-warming change. Read on to find out more!

Muslima Bibi is a young mother of three. She lives in a little village near Malancha, 56km from Kolkata. Four years after she had her second son she discovered that he was deaf. She spent the next four years going from one facility to another across the state but was unable to find the right kind of help. The pain of not being able to communicate with her child was growing. She eventually heard about VAANI and decided to pay us a visit. Just around that time she had her second son who she later found out was deaf too. She had been bringing both her deaf sons to the VAANI Sadhan Resource Centre in Kolkata diligently despite having to travel 3 hours one way for each trip.

Once the news about finding the right kind of services for her children spread across her village, other parents of deaf children began to approach her for details. But for most of them, the 3-hour travel was too much. Muslima began to see the need for such services in her village and decided to take the initiative. Little over a year ago, she approached VAANI to start services in Malancha. She offered up her cowshed as space and identified 4 other deaf children who would attend. VAANI started sending her 1 Teacher of the Deaf for 1 day of the week. And just 11 months later, she had 22 deaf kids enrolled!

For months she made it work under the cowshed. But it really was just a cowshed. It was unsecured and had no doors that could be locked.  After each day’s lesson, Muslima would lock all the teaching and learning materials in a box and keep it away in her house. She would also unhook the fan and light so that it would not be stolen. During the rains, the roof would leak and damage the toys and materials. Muslima and the other parents expressed their wishes to have a pucca structure and expanding it to accommodate the growing numbers. They also wanted to make their Link Centre a self-reliant one.

We took Muslima’s story of courage and initiative to prospective donors. Soon enough, the Rajni Nijhawan Charitable Trust picked up on it. They were so moved by the story that they decided to fund the entire renovation of the cowshed and a second room to accommodate the growing numbers.

This two-year long journey has been one of the most gratifying and reassuring experiences for VAANI. It proves that if we persevere, our beneficiaries will take their work forward themselves. It is always lovely to see parents take the initiative to give back to their communities. It nurtures a sense of camaraderie and lets every parent know that they aren’t alone in their struggles. We’re hopeful of what the future holds for the deaf children of Malancha. Without the generous support of the Rajni Nijhawan Charitable Trust, Muslima’s dream would not have materialised.

Our Proud Teacher Of The Deaf

Basana Debnath

Basana Debnath is a mother of two deaf children and a senior member of Vaani Family.

Basana came to Guwahati from Hojai, Lanka of Nagaon District for her children’s education. She met VAANI in the year 2008. After that she attended VAANI’s workshop to communicate with her child. She feels if she did not meet VAANI she would not have learnt how to communicate to her deaf children and how to teach a deaf child.

She joined VAANI as a parent counsellor and now works as  a proud Teacher Of The Deaf with Vaani.

Basana believes that every deaf child has a right to communicate and she has been proudly working with ‘Vaani’ on the issue of Childhood Deafness.

Haath Se Baat Kar

Sign language speakers use an element of drama in their communication, like mimes at the park or the most accomplished thespians. Perhaps that is why most people consider signing to be beautiful and graceful. But it is not simply an art form to be admired, it is a language.

As much as 90 per cent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, which can make learning sign language a family affair. Parents who learn sign language along with their children often find it easier to communicate on a deeper level with their deaf children.

To make the larger audience connected with the deaf community, VAANI Deaf Children’s Foundation started a concept,‘Haath Se Baat Kar Campaign’ with IT companies and CSR wings of various leading organizations. VAANI being a technically experienced organization in dealing with childhood deafness, advocated employees through face to face interaction with how people can become part of active members and supporters of the hearing-impaired community, by learning sign language.

Case Story: Yes! We Can

‘In-spite of having a family history of genetic deafness, it took us two years to realize that Ashim could not hear us. I just could not accept it and thought he can be cured till the doctor suggested for Hearing Aid and Speech Therapy’, says Ashim’s mother. She came to know about Sadhan Resource Centre by one of the parents of the deaf child in her village after which she registered Ashim and herself and started attending the sessions religiously.

‘Its been a year and a half and Ashim has not only picked up language but is also able to communicate. The sessions have helped me to communicate with my child effectively’ says Ashim’s mother.

Life Skill Programme

‘Life Skill Education’ is a crucial part in the education of Children With hearing Impairment, just like other children.

Regular sessions are organised at our Sadhan Centres for imparting life skill training and exposing children to the concept of Good & Bad Touch, Personal Hygiene & Keeping surroundings clean, Team work & Good manners and so on.

Speech Training Session At Our Sadhan Centre

Regular Speech Training sessions are conducted for children at our Sadhan Centre enabling them develop their speech and language skills and better communication.