Updates with deaf people in Afghanistan
We at “The Daily Moth” wanted to know how things are for deaf people in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August.
First, we contacted a hearing man named Nigel Walker who is the Norwegian Afghan Committee advisor and was one of those people who had to evacuate Afghanistan when the Taliban took over.
Last year Nigel made a video about a deaf school in Kabul to raise financial support for the school. We will show you a short clip.
[Clip]
The link to the full video is in this transcript. There is a GoFundMe link in this transcript. Right now they are at $9,435 and looking to raise $20,000 for the Deaf school.
We reached out to Nigel for an interview.
Renca: So now, how is the school doing, and the deaf children? What's the current report on the situation and the school now?
Nigel: So yeah, the school is open. It's open for girls and boys up to grade six, grade one through six, and we have two years of kindergarten. So boys and girls together, and then from grade six to grade 12 is boys only right now. And because of the recent takeover of the government, currently that's the situation. And we're working to change that situation, as is a lot of people.
Renca: I see. How many students total do you have at the school?
Nigel: We have about 600 students.
Renca: Wow, that's a big number. So 600 students, that also includes both boys and girls?
Nigel: Boys and girls, yeah, pretty equal.
Renca: And in your personal opinion, are you concerned about the Taliban taking over? And how women and girls will be treated? Or do you have trust in the system and that things will work out okay? I'm curious about your concerns, or if you have hope that things will change? What's your opinion?
Nigel: Yeah, I mean, like the rest of the international community, I'm very concerned that girls over, you know, after grade six and up getting educated. And women are unable to be teachers, it's very concerning. But it's something that we need to-- the whole international community needs to engage with. The deaf community has, you know, on top of that, has bigger challenges. Because it's the resources for those children who are deaf have always been sparse in Afghanistan. And so for them, it's an additional challenge. How are we going to, if we cannot force the government to change their education policies, how are we going to educate these children? So that's my focus, is finding organizations who want to engage with us in figuring that out.
Thank you Nigel for your time.
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We also reached out to several Deaf people in Afghanistan for an interview. We are not able to show any video interviews because they explained to us that it is not safe for them right now to do an interview.
One Deaf Afghan woman mentioned that if her face is shown and she explains what the current situation is, it is possible that she could get killed.
Another Deaf Afghan man explained to us that the people there are sad, especially with the girls and women who cannot go to school if they are above the 6th grade. This person explained that currently, people who work in the Afghan education system are trying to work with the Taliban government to have girls and women go back to school.
We did ask this person why this was happening with the girls and women. This person explained that based on their beliefs, the Taliban is trying to prevent lust, cheating, or any temptation between a woman and a man at schools, so they decided it is best for females to not go to school after the sixth grade.
We did ask how the Deaf community is doing in Afghanistan. This person explained that they are doing okay overall and are allowed to interact, but they still fear for their lives. They hope that peace will be resolved very soon so they can feel more free to share more things with us.
As you can see the situation is very tense for them.
Nigel asked the public to donate if they can to the GoFundMe link for the Deaf school in Kabul. If you know any Deaf non-profit organizations that can partner up with the Norwegian Afghan Committee organization to provide resources for Deaf children in Afghanistan, please visit the link in the transcript to contact them.
Our thoughts are with the Deaf community in Afghanistan.
NORWEGIAN AFGHAN COMMITTEE: https://afghanistan.no/en/
KABUL DEAF SCHOOL: https://youtu.be/CWJ5rxh-RP4
GoFundMe: