While still in many places of our progressing Northeast deafness is considered an impediment, Vaani took a strong stand to clear the doubt in whatever possible way here in Guwahati. Led by Inky Sen, Vaani on December 11 triggered off with a fund-raising concert ‘An Evening for a Cause’ at the Guwahati Gymkhana which was also more of an eye-opener to many.

Voodoo Child, the featured band that evening, also played for gratis in the unplugged fashion to enhance the cause for the fundraiser. Before the band took centrestage, Vaani staff made a brief presentation on deafness, what a deaf child goes through and Vaani’s activities which are aimed at improving communication with deaf children and ensuring that all deaf children have access to all aspects of life with dignity.

It’s noteworthy to mention here that the evening was just cut out the Vaani way with the right crowd, food and lovely music from Voodoo Child — all blended well.

From the Vaani team Inky Sen, programmes officer and Ajita Gohain, state project officer, welcomed everybody present and shared their thoughts: “This evening is not just a fund-raiser but also an evening to take the message across to all that communication is a must for deaf children in whatever mode — speech, sign or gesture.” Inky Sen further quoted the front man of Voodoo Child, Rittique Phukan who earlier had mentioned, “that I would like to do something special for that evening because it was not like any other evening but a very special one — it was for a special cause — so it had to be special, count us (Voodoo Child ) in.” Inky Sen further shared, “that it was indeed a special evening for two reasons — for the cause and for all the people present for the cause that evening.”

The band started off their unplugged gig on a good note with Learn to be still by the Eagles and went on to Tequila sunrise, songs by Chris Rea, Santana and other covers to which the delighted crowd made the most out of it on the dancing floor. Meanwhile, when the band pulled out CSNY’s Long time gone with an extended jam of 89 minutes, the crowd was mesmerized. The band was led by Rittique on vocals and rhythm guitars, Ambar Das on drums, Amborish on lead guitars Partha on bass guitar, Pritam on keyboards and Zoe Dikie on vocals on a few numbers. She was a delight with Rod Stewart’s First cut is the deepest.

One thing was clear that people thronged the venue that evening because they all supported the cause. “Everybody present here this evening are all very special for Vaani,” maintained Inky Sen. She thanked the guests for supporting the cause and said, “we should all help these hearing handicapped children from becoming especially able children.

For the record, Vaani, Deaf Children’s Foundation (earlier known as IDCS-India) was registered as a trust in 2005 and works to empower deaf children and their families across India. Since its inception three years ago, Vaani has been working in Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya providing a variety of good quality services for deaf children and their families. Vaani recently started work in Mizoram too.

In India there are already over 300,000 deaf children between 0-4 years and every year over 25,000 children are born deaf. It is estimated that approximately 80 per cent of parents never learn to communicate with their deaf child. In addition, late diagnosis of their deafness results in delayed development of the child. An undiagnosed deaf child aged 3 years has a vocabulary of 25 words compared to 700 words for a hearing child of the same age. It is due to these reasons that deafness is often referred to as an ‘invisible handicap’, and hence, most deaf children suffer silently and lead an isolated existence.

Vaani’s role is to act as a catalyst. Rather than directly delivering services, Vaani empowers deaf children and their families by providing training to professionals and families and providing unbiased information to help families make informed choices for their children. We assist families in their endeavour to meet other families with deaf children and gain support from their common experiences. Vaani believes that a national-level network of family groups is required to ensure that deaf children take their rightful place in society, and are able to lead a life of dignity. It has been conducting seminars on emotional and social needs of deaf children and their families, and following up on these with workshops for parents and professionals to address these needs.

Vaani believes that communication between deaf children and their families is vital to the healthy development of the child. We believe that it is vital that communication takes place, whatever be the mode — sign language, speech or a combination of the two.

To end with their vision “Access for every deaf child; access to communication for deaf children; access to information and the knowledge to comprehend it in its entirety; access to education; access to equal opportunities; access to protection and safety; access to a full and complete life”, let’s all join hands to make this world a better place...

Sattyakee D’com Bhuyan