Caritas-Goa is a registered charitable society of the Archdiocese of Goa and this year, we celebrate 60 years of the society. Over the six decades, Caritas-Goa has been serving the poor, needy, oppressed, differently-abled, people living with HIV/AIDS, marginalised, and victims of natural and human-made calamities.
Deafblindness is a unique disability as it is a combination of vision and hearing loss in an individual leading to complex problems in communications, mobility, and accessing information.
It is known that 94% of our learning takes place through the information we receive from vision and hearing. A deafblind child belongs to one of the most vulnerable groups of disability across the world.
Besides, the social stigma attached to disability and poverty further marginalises children and forces them into isolation and dependency. There are an estimated 4.85 lakh deafblind persons in India and Caritas-Goa works with deafblind children and young adults in Goa.
The main aim of Caritas-Goa in working with children with deafblindness is to provide a comprehensive service for persons with deafblindness/MSI including early intervention, educational and vocational services in Goa, so that maximum children with Deafblindness/MSI have access to education and rehabilitation services.
The centres for Deafblind by Caritas-Goa has been working with deafblind children and young adults and those with multiple disabilities since July 2012.
A state-of-the-art Centre for Deafblind has been set up in Saligao and presently catere to around 86 children. Since 2019, Caritas-Goa has opened a branch for deafblind/MSI (Multi-sensory) services with a designated team serving in South Goa. At present, 30 children and young adults are enrolled at the centre in Borda-Margao.
Through both projects, Caritas-Goa provides medical, nutrition, education, physiotherapy, speech therapy, and vocational training for deafblind children and with multiple disabilities. Caritas-Goa also assists families with documentation to access different facilities and schemes beneficial to them. Besides, home-based services, centre based services and clinical and functional assessments are also offered to children.
Caritas-Goa creates awareness about deafblindness and conducts training for special educators to enhance their skills to work with children with deafblindness.
Is Goa accessible and inclusive to people with deafblindness? Goa has made some progress in comparison with the past, but not with standards to be achieved. The biggest challenge that children and young adults with deafblindness face in Goa is lack of accessibility.
Caritas-Goa is focussed on teaching children to be independent in life and this process begins from early childhood. Educators play a crucial role along with parents by engaging in various adaptive activities based on the child’s current level and need.
Many misconceptions are still associated with deafblindness. The biggest misconception is that people believe that children or young adults with deafblindness can never be independent and will always be a burden for the family. This is wrong. Caritas-Goa has some young adults with deafblindness who have completed SSC, HSSC and are presently pursuing further studies. One young adult is even self-employed and manages his general store. There are also young adults with deafblindness who are married and have a family life.
If we focus on their strengths, they can achieve anything just like a normal person. If the necessary and right support is given to adults with deafblindness, they can achieve wonders in life.
(The writer is director of Caritas-Goa.)
