If you can’t communicate, no one will listen.
Next Month, St Francis de Sales School opens. Its first intake will be 50 students who have profound hearing loss and other disabilities. Thank you to everyone who has contributed; you will be making a life changing difference to so many children.
Life is tough for deaf children in Uganda. Any disability can lead to marginalisation, and prejudice. For a deaf child this means they do not learn to talk, or lip read. Many are never enrolled in school; they miss the opportunity to be taught to read and write or learn sign language. They grow up without a meaningful way to communicate. If you can’t communicate, no one will listen. Despite normal intelligence, and huge potential the only future for many is subsistence farming or labouring, abuse or forced child marriage. Economists call this a ‘gap’ in Human Capital; we call it a travesty.
Our new school specifically cares for preschool and early primary years students. Helping them when they are young enough, to be able to break open the neural pathways through which lifelong communicate will flow. It will instil self-belief and give hope.
Good quality education requires good quality teachers and equipment. HUGS is hosting a special art competition and auction this July/August. ‘What does sound look like to you?’ We are challenging artists to visually interpret sound. Our judges are a senior curator from Manchester Art Gallery, and leaders in Ear Nose and Throat and Audiology in the UK. The winners will form a permanent display in the Peter Mount, ENT centre in the Central Manchester Hospital, and one piece of art will hang in the foyer at St Frances de Sales School. If you are an artist, could this be your work?
If you know of anyone who would like to enter please email hugs.chair@gmail.com
Water for all
HUGS donors have raised £3300 to pay for 25 new water connections in the KosOvo slum in Kampala. On average children miss a month of schooling every year due to illness. Working with a local grassroots community group we hope to bolster children’s chances by providing disease free water, a meal a day and access to the classroom. This is an exciting new project, which helps some of the poorest families in Uganda.
Thank you for your support