Following the mandate of the Save the Deaf and Endangered Languages Initiative, the attention of well-meaning Imolites, the state government, educationists, the media and concerned bodies were drawn to the deplorable and insecure living condition of students at the Imo State Secondary School for the Deaf Ofekata Orodo.
A handover and commissioning ceremony of an electrification and water reticulation project carried out by the S-DELI at the School for the Deaf Ofekata Orodo which was held on the 21st July, 2016 at the said school, opened the eyes of meek minds to the living condition of students at the School for the Deaf Ofekata Orodo.
The event which was supposed to be a hand-over ceremony for the project accomplished by S-DELI, however, was leveraged on to practically remind the government and other stakeholders the need to improve the welfare and security of students in the Deaf Communities in Imo State.
A sympathetic attention was drawn to the abandonment of the deaf students by parents and the hostility inflicted on them by the hearing host community. Due to lack of security personnel and near absence of security facilities, vandals and other miscreants from the hearing host community terrorize the school, molest the students, abuse the integrity of the female students and vandalize facilities put in place in the school. The S-DELI President Dr Emma Asonye who is a research scholar at the University of New Mexico, USA, in his welcome address decried the hostility of the hearing host community against the deaf students. He sighted an instance of such wickedness when he mentioned that the solar lights donated and installed by his NGO to the deaf school in February 2016, has been vandalized by invaders from the host community. This makes a clear imagery of the level of insecurity prevalent at the Imo State School for the Deaf Ofekata Orodo.
It is unfortunate that in a state-owned mixed gender residential secondary school, there is no adult; Metron or security after teaching hours to regulate or guide the students along the path of former living in a dormitory settings. Indeed, this, most unfortunately, show the abandonment of the Deaf by both parents and government. This situation has degenerated into co-habitation among the deaf students, sexual abuses and widespread of sexually transmitted deceases (STDs). In a report published by Save the Deaf and Endangered Languages Initiative after a medical outreach at the School for the Deaf Ofekata Orodo, a high percentage of the female deaf students were tested positive for STDs.
You will definitely weep if you get to see the unhygienic condition and practices these helpless deaf students are subjected to. Pictures of their place of convenience if posted here will definitely make you throw up. In a situation like this, the students are subjected to an unhealthy and most unhygienic living condition.
There are many more conditions that made meek minds on the occasion of the hand-over of the electrification and water reticulation project carried out by the SDELI to the state government to weep bitterly for the students. Including the intrigues of state government politics in seeking presence and praise without addressing core challenges facing the students.
Instead of weep and wail, there is a need for concerned individuals and meek minds to play an active role in trying to improve the welfare of Deaf Communities.