Wednesday 22 December 2010

Annual report for the ChangSha Deaf Centre 2010

Chansha school for deaf children is a great example of God’s love being shown practically to the people of Hunan province. If this school did not exist many of its students would not be attending school. Both because the local schools won’t enroll them and also because the majority of the students are too poor to go anywhere else. The school faces many challenges. It receives no support from the government, so all its support comes from churches and organisations such as NMS. The neighbours of the school dislike having the school in their building and sometimes throw rubbish at the children, because of this the school is looking for better premises. There is also a high teacher turn over rate. It is not easy working at the school, the hours are long and the pay is not great. And yet, the school still has one of the best reputations in the country amongst the hearing impaired community.

The school is situated in Hunan province in China. It was started in 2002 by Mrs Wang. She originally started the school because her own son, who is hearing impaired, was unable to get a place in a regular government school.

Since then the school has gone from strength to strength. It started with only a handful of students and yet now has over 90 full time students. 80% of the students come from poor rural backgrounds. 7 of which receive scholarships as their family’s are too poor to pay the small fee that is needed to study here. The students range from 2 to 7 years old. The school is a boarding school, so all the students live and study at the facility.



There are more than 40 staff members at the school. With the money that the school receives the staff has been able to carry out several training programmes and send several teachers on courses to improve their education. This year the school has started holding training sessions for the parents, these sessions encourage parents to become involved in their child’s education and teaches them how to do this.

This year, 17 former students have managed to enroll in regular primaries and kindergartens. Chang Sha school for deaf children has a much higher success ratio at helping children integrate into the mainstream Chinese school system than the government facilities do. Their success ratio is 40% to 45%, whilst the government institutions is only 25%.

Many parents come back later to say thank you to Mrs Wang and the school for the amazing help that she has given their children.

The school has gone on several outings for fun and also to help promote awareness of the hearing impaired. On China’s national “Love the Ear day” the students and teachers went to the park, gave out leaflets and demonstrated to people how to better look after your ears!

Thank you for all your prayers and support, as you have read, it is greatly needed, appreciated and gives life changing results.

Tuesday 21 December 2010

The bittersweet story of MeiLin

Life can be harsh in China. MeiLin, who was born deaf, has already experienced how.

Poor family

Her family is quite poor, partly as a result of her father also being disabled as he has only one hand. In China people are often ashamed of disabilities.

Embarrassed mother

Her mother was so embarrassed about the fact that her daughter could not speak that she abandoned MeiLin. She did not visit or see her daughter for a whole year.

A thriving girl

Fortunately, MeiLin enrolled in Changsha Deaf Centre. She is a smart little girl, eager to learn and at Changsha Deaf Centre she thrived. With the help of her teachers she learnt to speak.

When her uncle found out that she could speak he was so happy that he decided to get in contact with his sister and he convinced her that she should return home. The mother returned and is now a part of the family again!

Peace

Reverend Yao, leader of XinDe foundation who started the centre, remarked that “the improvement of this little girl is going to bring reconciliation to her broken up family”. The head teacher of the school, Mrs Wang, said “This is an unexpected result. The peace of God transcends all understanding.”

Great opportunity!


It’s fantastic that girls like MeiLin, who otherwise would have no chance to go to school, can come to the deaf centre in ChangSha!
We wish you a very blessed Christmas!