special issue: inauguration 2009 - National Peace Corps Association

Language and the Peace Corps
A VOICE FOR THE UNHEARD
Deaf education volunteers assist a frequently overlooked population
by JoAnna Haugen
Peace Corps is known for
sending volunteers into
the most impoverished
communities to help the most
underserved populations. To date,
however, only a single program has
specifically focused on one of the most
neglected groups of people around the
world: those who are deaf.
In 1992, Peace Corps launched
the deaf education program in Kenya
and has since placed hundreds of
volunteers—some of them deaf—at
schools across the nation to teach both
students and teachers. In recent years,
two similar programs, in Ghana and
Zambia, have also been established.
The growth of the deaf education
program is a positive one. In many of
the countries where Peace Corps has a
presence, nationals who are deaf receive
little or no attention.
When disease and
poverty are the primary
concerns of a nation, the
well being of the deaf
population is of little
importance.
Kenya, to its credit,
has approximately 40
primary schools for
the deaf to service the
whole country, while
many nations have half a
dozen or fewer. However
despite Kenya’s efforts to
serve deaf children, the
attempts often fall short.
“There is lots of stigma
toward the children (at
the deaf schools) and
that is carried over to
the teachers and staff,”
said Erin Hayba (Kenya
05-07), a former Peace
Corps intern who
researched opportunities available for
volunteers with special needs. Teachers
don’t have to know Kenyan Sign
Language to teach at deaf schools, and
because they work with a perceived
lower class of students, morale is low
and education suffers.
While deaf education volunteers
find teaching to be rewarding, reaching
this population at the primary school
is almost too late. “I think ‘deaf
education’ should be broadened to ‘deaf
community’ so that we can address
other (and more important) issues such
as language access and human rights
issues,” said Julie Hochgesang (Kenya
02-04) through an e-mail interview.
“Most deaf people do not have access
to language … until they attend school
where other deaf people use language
that is accessible to them.” Exposure
Callie Sorensen, a deaf education volunteer in Kenya, looks on as her student signs.
to a language at a very young age is
essential for all aspects of a healthy life.
Social skills and cognitive development
are severely stinted when children are
not introduced to communication
until primary school. In the current
deaf education program volunteers
work as teachers where deaf children
start attending at the age of five, six or
even later, Hochgesang said, and that
is very late for language development.
“Translated into real-world terms,”
she said, “this means that deaf people
struggle to read and write, they struggle
to understand the world around them,
they struggle to communicate with
their doctors, they struggle in obtaining
equal pay from their bosses.”
Raising awareness of basic rights
for deaf people, such as education,
employment and sign language
Peace Corps
22 Spring 2009