Hear the Deaf Singing….

When a deaf person uses sign language and makes accompanying sounds, that sounds usually are inaudible and monotone.  Not in a million years would you then think a deaf person will ever be able to sing in such a manner that it will be pleasant on a hearing person’s ears.  I was present when deaf children sang their school anthem in angelic voices!  Not amazing?  You have to be there and really understand what deafness entails to realise just how amazing it is!  I joined a group of “bloggers”, who met online on Steve Hofmey’s blog, for a visit at the Carel du Toit Centre in the Tygerberg Hospital area in Cape Town.  I spent my morning in awe at the miracles that are worked at the centre.

We started our visit with the little ones who recently joined the program and we were entertained and welcomed by every class.  The education is experienced based and the theme for the week was hair care.  A hearing baby is taught language from the day he is born without us realising it.  A child that suddenly hears after 2 or 3 years of not hearing anything, hears sounds but cannot identify it as language.  To the child what you are saying is just more sounds and rather confusing.  That is exactly what is done at the centre – the children are taught “language” to prepare them to join mainstream schools.

The centre accommodates children that are 100% deaf and received cochlear implants, children with hearing apparatus (who has a severe percentage loss but can hear with support), as well as 100% hearing children with a language feedback disability.  We were told that to the deaf the sound they hear trough a cochlear implant is a bit like hearing Donald Duck in a tunnel.   For a child that never had hearing before, it is normal and they talk and sing like any normally hearing child once they have caught up on language.

The centre has two Grade 1 classes, one Afrikaans and one English.  This is where one stands in awe at what is done at the centre.  The children are attending normal schooling.  If one did not know the children were deaf, one would never guess.  We walked into a lesson on sentence construction and I was amazed at the vocabulary and the reasoning of the children.  Then I asked if the children could sing for us.  This is the true test as far as I am concerned.  A deaf child might be able to lip read or “fake” his way around talking.  But a deaf child will be tone deaf and would not be able to sing like the children in the video below…. 5 of the 6 children in the video are deaf.  Amazing!

I received many hugs and the little smiling faces and soft goodbye’s will remain with me forever.  I will from now on be know as a friend of the Carel du Toit centre and I will attend fund raisers and spread their story. It feels good to be a good news reporter!

But sadness fills me as well.  In South Africa we do not have the financial capacity to support a centre like this with 100% funding.  Furthermore, the parents of qualifying children are responsible for the payment of the implants itself.  At about R200,000 each, a lot of children are losing out on the opportunity to ever hear the rain.  If you are reading this and you are involved with a big business that must still decide on your yearly donation for tax purposes, then please visit the centre’s web site for more information.  http://www.careldutoit.co.za  A well-known golfer sponsored one girl’s cochlear implant and today she is returning the favour by working so hard that she is the centre’s Dux learner.  Do you know of anybody that can help another child hear the tic of the seconds on a watch?  Then please spread the news!

To Rounelle and the staff at Carel du Toit I want to say thank you for opening your doors and arms to us.  To Charlene, René and Suzaan, thank you for a fantastic day in your presence.  And to every child that gave me a hug, thank you for golden memories.