Throughout this past month our elementary teachers have been scouring the hills and towns searching for children who are deaf/hearing impaired and inviting them to come and be a part of our IDEA classrooms.
This year on Bohol 32 students were identified between the ages of 5 and 13. Each of the parents and students are invited to come and stay at the dorms for a couple of days for Orientation Camp.
Procedures and policies are explained, medical exams and hearing tests done on the children and the parents are given their first sign language class.
Timidly the children come clinging closely to their parents, afraid of their new surroundings. Yet like most children they soon learn that the silent world they thought they lived in all alone has now expanded to others who are experiencing the world in the same way, and they are off and running playing gleefully around the dorm with their new found friends.
It will be an adjustment leaving mom and dad, learning how to use indoor bathroom facilities, having 50 new brothers and sisters to live with, learning how to sit still in a classroom and seeing the world of language being opened up. But the chance to be heard and understood, to be included in a world where people can relate and understand, well worth it!
What an honor and privilege it is to be given the opportunity to care for these children and to be able to offer them a hope and a future. If you sponsor a child through IDEA – this is where your sponsorship money goes!
If you haven’t yet chosen to sponsor a child please visit the Support our Work tab – Sponsor a Child – for pictures of the children entrusted to our care. As the new ones get settled in and we are sure they’re going to stay, more and more will be added to the website so visit it often.
