“Through this partnership with Gallaudet, USAID is supporting a changing of the tide for the deaf community,” Donohoe said at the launch. “Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do, except hear. In fact, deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind people can excel at all levels of education and employment when they are provided an education that is accessible and designed for them to directly interact and communicate with their parents, teachers, and peers.”
Operational since May2021 and continuing through 2024, Deaf-E3will develop manuals to train educational professionals in a multimodal and multilingual approach in deaf education, build the capacity of NNAD and its stakeholders, establish a consortium of interpreters and deaf individuals to improve practices in sign language interpretation in education, and increase the capacity of USAID and other development actors to promote awareness of the NNAD and other advocates for the deaf community.
“Fewer than 40 percent of Nigeria’s deaf children are enrolled into primary school, and even fewer are allowed to continue into secondary education,” Fela Bank-Olemoh, Senior Special Assistant to the President of the Federation on Education Interventions said. “Programs like this are critical to ensure all stakeholder’s hands must be on deck to address the problem of under-education, under-development, and poverty among the deaf community.”
Considered the premier U.S. institution of higher learning for the deaf community, Gallaudet conducts research in many fields, including education, linguistics, psychology, educational neuroscience, deaf history and culture, and Black deaf history and culture, and already has a presence in Nigeria . Other Deaf-E3activity partners include Wesley University – Ondo , Discovering Deaf Worlds , and the National Commision for Persons with Disabilities .
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Nigeria.
