In her shoes

I have an educational background in community development am not deaf but I have chosen to identify with the deaf .I see the pain a deaf women have to go through in the community ,and I have chosen to speak out for her ,to share in her pain ,to understand her life and become her friend .

In Kenya we have an approximate 600 000 to 700 000 deaf person and among this the women are majority, this woman experiences life the same we experience it, she get scared when she become of age and is confused of sexual issues, she want to understand the changes in her body, she want to know what love is, she want to love and be loved she is confused when she has to go through Female genital mutilation (FGM),
She wants to understand what future hold for her. But she cant speak ,we don’t understand her language ,she can only sign hoping we will understand ,her family can not understand her language either they can only try to give her what the society expects from them .
Her language of pain is tears, fear and distrust

At a very early age most deaf girls are raped by family men or other men in the community, they become an easy target as they can not shout or scream, Their mind are confused and they think sex is an expression of love and men get to exploit them . Most of these girls become pregnant at a very early age and the little hope they had is shuttered, it becomes a full stop to any hope of advancing in their education or living their dream.

Being in a developing country which has attracted a lot of NGO it is unfortunate that very few reach to the deaf ,when every one is working toward the achievement of millennium development goal very little has been done on the deaf world
I want to see a network being established ,in the fight against HIV/AID I would love to see the deaf being able to access testing and all benefit that come with it .Toward good education I would like to see the status of deaf school being improved ,with the growth of IT i would love to see the deaf getting access to information , its so unfortunate that there is no any single TV station that brings the news in sign language ,it is also unfortunate that with the growing number of learning institution no any single higher learning institution has a package to cater for the deaf .
However it’s easy if we were to give it a try,
Question is are we ready?

In the Voice of our future, there is a large community .in many different field of interest but which can be of benefit to the deaf in the world .am glad I joined young women in leadership that guided me to join the voice of our future.