Progress Among Afghan Deaf Community

In the spring of this year three of SERVE’s SHIP (SERVE Hearing Impaired Project) deaf graduates passed the entrance exam for Kabul University’s Education University. This was a historical event in Afghan history as no deaf men or women have ever attempted to enter the university previously. 

As we celebrate SERVE’s 30^th anniversary we like to look back on our history. One of SERVE’s main focus areas is disability and an important part of that is our work with the Deaf. SHIP was established in September 1992 in Peshawar as a response to the growing needs of deaf Afghan refugees. SHIP provided vocational, sign language and literacy training to more than 60 deaf Afghan children and adults in Peshawar and the surrounding refugee camps. At that time there was no common, established, nation-wide sign language for Afghans or educational or rehabilitation services. Deaf women particularly faced huge communication and isolation barriers as they were restricted to their homes.

As soon as the security situation permitted, SHIP made the decision to relocate the project to Afghanistan and in January of 1995 a survey was carried out in Jalalabad, the capital city of the eastern province of Nangarhar. At least 120 Deaf were located in Jalalabad and in April 1995 the project moved from Peshawar to Afghanistan.

Presently, there are 238 students at the SHIP school in Jalalabad. The project also runs a training center for special education and Afghan Sign Language development and advocates for the integration of people with disability, has a blind pre-school which includes Braille and mobility training and has community development committees, family groups and parents’ committees. SHIP also supports deaf classes held in government schools in the provinces of Nangarhar and Laghman.

Justin, one of SERVE’s expatriate technical advisors who works with the Deaf, recently returned to Afghanistan after being gone for three years. He first came to Afghanistan in 2004 and worked with the Deaf in Jalalabad. He enjoyed working closely with the Deaf and being immersed in Afghan culture. He also met his future wife in Kabul and got engaged. They left Afghanistan, got married and had a son. In early 2010 they returned to Afghanistan. Justin is currently working on a video dictionary for the Deaf. Justin’s love for the Deaf community is obvious. He developed a concern and ability to relate to the Deaf by relating to his deaf brother-in-law and studying American Sign Language in the States.

A SHIP ClassWe look forward to seeing the good that will come from his work and the others who are working faithfully and diligently with the Afghan Deaf.