Help me!

Help me!

That’s a common thing I hear nowadays from my Deaf friends. The common question that keeps on popping up everywhere I go, whomsoever I meet. It’s quite interesting because they ask me to:

1. Tell them the meaning of a certain word (it makes me feel like a walking encyclopedia/dictionary)

2. Interpret at a fast food place, a restaurant, even in a movie theatre! (because I’ve read the book that was the movie adaptation already)

3. Explain the meaning of a story, even a pedestrian sign(it was in Tagalog and the Deaf are mostly English speakers), , a newspaper article(I have a friend who asked me if Bush is mad that Obama is now President and I had to explain that Obama was voted by the people, Bush was not sacked), and once, a sign at the LRT station (and boy, all of these take a long time because there will be pauses in between when they have inquiries)

….. most recently, friends have been asking me to help them find a job. This one gets me really down. When you think about it, our parents invested so much in our education. Our teachers, administrators, interpreters all tell us that we can do it - that they have high hopes for us, that the Deaf can be anything they want to be. Then suddenly we are thrust in the outside world and reality hits us. It’s hard out there. We don’t have the same job opportunities that hearing people have.

I read about Deaf in other countries such as the United Kingdom and America, getting benefits from the government (as in they get paid even though they have no jobs. I forgot what it’s called.) and getting a job as a lawyer, a doctor, a psychiatrist. If we were given the same opportunities, imagine what the Deaf here can do! Many of my friends are forced to study a certain course because (as the school says) the course they want is not available for the Deaf.(as in, kahit na gusto mo maging architect, di pwede, sorry na lang). That’s really sad. It’s like killing the dreams of a person even before they graduate.

When I think about it, I was a Deaf teacher because I wanted to help shape the future of my fellow Deafies. When I left, it opened my eyes to reality. I mean, what was the point of being a teacher for the Deaf when they graduate, nahihirapan sila maghanap ng trabaho? Maybe my friends asking me for help is another God-given sign. I hope my blog post will open up more opportunities for the Deaf.

Maybe this is my real purpose in life- to raise Deaf awareness.

I’m up to the challenge.