He cannot talk like others but still gains knowledge alongside his classmates

“Once upon a day a man was sleeping under a tree when suddenly something fell over his head and made him awaken, he then rubbed his head and looked around noticing it was a walnut fallen from the tree and said, thank god it was a walnut, not a pumpkin, otherwise I would have been killed.” The joke said by Tamim in sign language.

Tamim 17, a boy with hearing impairment studying at 10 grade of a common school. He cannot talk like others but still struggles to gain knowledge alongside his classmates. Tamim has been enrolled at this school by inclusive education project run by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan.

Bakhtar high school is among some of the other schools at Mazar city of Balkh, the northern province in Afghanistan which works in close collaboration with SCA by accepting and educating students with disability introduced by Preparation Rehability Center (PRC) run by SCA.

“I would have been jobless, illiterate, disappointed, tired, stuck at home like a prisoner, engaged in hard works beyond my abilities, or perhaps robbery and kidnapping and so on if SCA wouldn’t have helped me.” Said Tamim.

Tamim is not the only boy with a disability in his class, but there are two more in his class with hearing impairment Jawad and Ajmal. They have been able to build a friendly relationship both among themselves as well as their classmates.

“It is our responsibility to help our classmates with hearing impairment. We all thank SCA for its contribution to supporting and caring about our lovely classmates with a disability.” Said Mirwais, one of the students in the class.

Not only the students but the teachers at the school were also willing to help and pessimistic about their future. We found Tamim sitting in the class while the teacher was lecturing about geography. We were surprised to know how the teacher was ensuring if Tamim and his two other friends with hearing impairment understand the lecture.

“We found these students with hearing impairment very clever, smart and interested in learning. So in order to deliver them the message of our lesson, we’ve received a training about the sign language from SCA, so we can now teach them by making gestures and showing them the pictures.” Said Mohammad Shafi Ghulami, the teacher.

But also Rohullah 16 is among the boys helping Tamim in understanding their lessons by acting as an interpreter between the teacher and the lecture. The reason why Rohullah is interested in helping Tamim lies on the good attitude from Tamim toward his classmates.

“I love Facebook and using the internet because I would like to be connected with all those with hearing impairment across the world as well as updating myself of the new sign language promoted in the world.” Added Tamim.

Tamim aspires to once go to Sweden and return back to Afghanistan after he has received an advanced training of sign language for helping others with hearing impairment. “My dream is to visit Sweden because it is the only country from which I have been receiving all the vital support through SCA.” He added.

Inclusive Education Program run by SCA mainly enrolls students with disability into the common school run by the government. It was first established in 2010 at Mazar city. It has so far been able to expand its operation into 3 provinces by covering 1509 students including 910 boys and 599 girls with disability. So far, 2279 teachers in the government schools are trained by SCA about the sign language as well as the methods for helping students with a disability. As such, 78 students with a disability have so far been graduated from the common schools among which 15 are now working in the media outlets like Radio and TV stations and some are studying at universities while some others are handling their businesses and running their normal lives.