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NCDS Aims to Meet Demand from Asian Community
NCDS Aims to Meet Demand from Asian Community
Such is the need, that the charity is now looking to expand its hands-on work with families after just four months.
NDCS has set up the first ever project of its kind to help ethnic minority families in Tower Hamlets and Newham in London communicate with their deaf children. It already has 40 families on its books.
The project, part of NDCS's Family Communication Service, links trained deaf adults from the local Asian community to families with deaf children. The deaf adults act as role models for the young deaf people and show families they can have high expectations of their children. They will teach the families basic sign language, educate them about deafness and help promote a positive image of deafness.
A recent 'Deaf Awareness Day' organised by NDCS for parents of deaf Bengali children in Tower Hamlets saw more than 20 families attend.
Heading up the Asian Family Communication Service is Zobia Kalim, a native Urdu speaker and herself the mother of a deaf child.
She said: "Within just four months I received more than 40 referrals from the two boroughs, showing an overwhelming demand for the service.
"We have recruited and trained a number of deaf role models but we need even more to join the team and provide support to families.
"We want to help the families as much as we can and to create awareness of the challenges facing deaf children in the Asian community. These are not insurmountable and building positive attitudes towards deafness is vital."
NDCS has just made factsheets about childhood deafness available in five ethnic minority languages on its website www.ndcs.org.uk. The following languages can all be downloaded free of charge: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. These address issues such as communication, technology and education.
- NDCS
