SCHOOL FOR JEWISH, MUSLIM, AND CHRISTIAN DEAF WORKERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Solar Ear is proud to make a partnership with Pauchon Foundation and to have won the 2019 Pauchon Award, allowing us to build a micro-soldering school in Israel for Jewish, Muslim and Christian deaf workers with a peace-building mission.
Introduction
People who are deaf speak in sign language and encounter widespread difficulties in entering the workforce. Problems begin at school, when people with disabilities have difficulty preparing for the work market because of various factors, including prejudice, discrimination by classmates and teachers, plus many lacking basic communication skills, such as people who are deaf. Without the skills to compete in a profession, they’re denied a fair chance of getting hired. Aggravating this problem is a lack of awareness by the society of their potential, the lack of skilled workers and misinformation among potential employers. We at Solar Ear have shown in Botswana, China, Brazil that people who are deaf are people who are deaf and not a deaf person.
” What matters deafness of the ears when the mind hears? The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.” – Victor Hugo, letter to Ferdinand Berthier, 1845
Given people who are deaf speak in sign language, their hand-eye coordination is better than 99% of the oral population. Sign language is also a culture. We want to use and hi-lite their ability and their common culture, to start a theoretical and practical electronic micro-soldering school in Israel, training and empowering Jewish, Muslim and Christian young deaf adults. This program will also have a health, educational, environmental, inclusion and peace building outcome and long term impact. These Jewish Muslim and Christian young adults share a common culture, i.e. a deaf culture. We will start our peace building program from this common starting point.
Most technical training in the world today is usually a North-South program, USA to Kenya as an example. Rarely is it South-North (Brazil to Israel). Part of the training aspect will be South-North with the deaf worker from Brazil coming to train the workers who are deaf in Israel.
Empowerment
This Botswana to Israel ( South-North ) plus deaf to deaf training program work will be part of their empowerment program. For the Brazil deaf workers, it is the last step in their empowerment training program. For the youths who are deaf at this new program, it is their first day. It will be the first time that they will have a deaf teacher. This will show them that a deaf person can be a teacher, and they will one day! When we open the next Solar Ear program in Kashmir we will send two or three of them to select, train and teach this course to the next generation of young students who are deaf on micro-soldering, and peace building. The Solar Ear program goal is to replicate and not only its technical expertise but also all of our social and empowerment program globally. We build the confidence of the person taking this course that a person who is deaf can anywhere and be anything and do anything except hear.
Education and Human rights
There are too many studies showing that people with a disability have a higher incidence of STD’s than people who do not have a disability. Without going into all the causes, let me just summarise by saying we also teach about STDs and HIV-Aids as part of the training program. In Botswana, we lowered HIV-AIDS from 38% to 10%. The young adults from Brazil were taught this from the young adults who are deaf from Botswana in our first program. We will teach this to the young adults who are deaf in Israel. People who are deaf are too often left out of the educations process about STD’s as their reading skill is limited, and they do not watch TV nor listen to the radio. According to UN Article 26 of Charter of Human Rights, Everyone has the right to an Education, but sadly people who are deaf are too often left out of the education process, so this program is also a Human Rights Issue.
Inclusion
We show the above hand-eye co-ordination ABILITY to other companies so that they will hire them. We hi-lite the abilities and not the person’s disability. In this course, the workers who are deaf are taught everything about electronics. ( see the course outline) Therefore after this course, they can repair a TV, radio, cellphone and even an aeroplane. Our goal is after studying together is for them to work together.
Environment
As part of the technical training program, we assemble solar hearing aids battery recharger’s. Given the rapidly expanding solar industry in Israel, this program will give them the knowledge of solar energy as well as the skills to work in this field.
Program Sustainability
Given they will be making solar chargers for hearing aids, they will be able to sell these products which in term will enable this school to replicate this course. This host organisation can also act as a placement service to the industry which would generate other income. This has been the case in Botswana, China, and Brazil.
Stakeholders
There are two schools for the deaf in Jerusalem who have the students who are deaf which we require. These students are in their last year of high school and unless we find the next step for them, they will go back to their respective communities. We will also involve Technion for additional technical advice and some-in-kind contribution as well as either the Hebrew University or Rotary to implement their successful peace building programs. Again, the peace building taught to the Jewish, Muslim and Christian young adults who are deaf, will be replicated when they teach all of the above social missions to young Hindu and Muslim adults who are deaf in Kashmir.
Kahil Gibran once said: “When you work, you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hour’s turns into music. To love life through labor is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret. All work is empty save when there is love made visible.”