Mobile phones aid for deaf children

By REBECCA TORR

DEAF children will now be able to communicate with their families by telephone, thanks to a donation by a telecom company.

MTC-Vodafone (Bahrain) donated 100 third generation (3G) video mobile telephones to hearing impaired children at the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Hearing and Speech Development Centre, Sanad, yesterday.

The company also donated telephone lines that will be charged at the same rate given to MTC-Vodafone staff.

The BD20,000 gesture was presented by MTC-Vodafone (Bahrain) chief operating officer Dr Ahmed Al Shatti and marketing communications manager Hala Suleiman when they met centre president Dr Fouad Shehab, Salmaniya Medical Complex speech consultant Dr Omar Al Sharif and families at the centre yesterday.

It means the children will now be able to communicate on their new phones by lip reading.

"Our technology and financial capabilities are here to serve the community and to enable the different segments of the society," said Ms Suleiman.

"Each individual in this society can contribute to its development and we are here to enable them."

Dr Shehab thanked MTC-Vodafone for its generosity and said the mobiles would make a huge difference to the lives of hearing impaired children and their families, who in the past had to rely on text messages for communication.

"These telephones will help families to talk with their child because many children depend on lip reading," Dr Shehab told the GDN.

Dr Shehab explained the main objective of the centre since it was established in 1993 was to enable hearing impaired children become assets to society, rather than burden.

He said many children from the centre had been able to attend mainstream schools and his profoundly deaf daughter Mariam, aged 18, had this year become the first student to enrol at university.

"She is studying accounting and finance at Ahlia University and she has profound hearing loss, I am here because of her," he said.

"So now we are having children from here going to mainstream schools and university.

"Our dream for the future is to see that all children with hearing impairment are integrated socially and financially.

"The results we are having are showing that it is not impossible to do this."

The centre, which relies solely on donations, currently accommodates 73 hearing impaired children, aged three to 14-years-old.

Many of the children come from poor families that are unable to afford the school fees, which are BD20 per month and BD30 with transport.

"We charge only 30 per cent of the effective costs, but some can't even afford to pay this," explained Dr Shehab.

"We have 20 students in kindergarten and 10 of them are exempt from fees because they (their families) can't afford them - that's why donations are so important."