yeah
you guys are alive right we’re alive
tonight let’s go anyways I wanted to
pose a question for you guys how many of
you guys have met a deaf person before
all right not two about about half how
many of you can imagine what it’s like
to be deaf in this world I want to let
you guys know I was born like you guys I
was born a hearing person I remember
being a little kid I remember enjoying
hearing all these different sounds
I remember hearing the bird singing in
the morning I remember the sound of the
river I remember the sound of rain and
lightning
I remember the chickens and the goats
and the cows and all the different
noises that I had experienced as a
so life was beautiful I went to school I
talked I danced until about the age of
10 I remember I was in class its fourth
grade and my class suffered it was
horrible for three months we didn’t have
a teacher and I remember we were
supposed to our new teacher was supposed
to show up this this particular day and
I’m so excited to go to school and learn
but um my head my body my energy was
really low I I had this horrible fever
and I was dizzy and I couldn’t focus so
the teacher ordered my cousin who
happened to sit next to me to take me
home my cousin helped me arrive back to
my house and I was done for I was really
really sick and my grandparents called
my father to come see me and he rode
over on his bicycle and he he took me
home back to my parents home I remember
the next morning I woke up and gosh I
just had a hard time hearing anything
I called some my mom I was like mom I
can’t hear anything
and my mom said Oh calm down son we’ll
go to the doctor tomorrow we’ll be fine
so I went to bed Friday morning I
couldn’t hear anything and it became
worse and worse and worse and my dad
decided to put me on the back of his
favorite bicycle and walk me we walked
to the nearby health clinic I wish we
had hospitals in my crunch in my country
but Burundi at that time is just tiny
and there you know there was no 911 no
ambulances to come pick me up we had to
use whatever we had so my dad used to
bicycle the nurse at the clinic looking
me over and said you’re fine and she
gave me fever medication she said she
said I’d be perfectly fine so I went
back home it was a Saturday and then it
was a Sunday and I felt so horrible I
remember waking up in in the morning and
I was so cold in the bath I couldn’t
even stand I couldn’t even really sit
anymore so bicycling wasn’t an option
for me so my family called our neighbors
and they used our method by which we
brought people to the hospital they put
me on a stretcher with two wooden dowels
and four men on each corner and laid me
down and they walked me back to the same
clinic again that day the nurse looked
me over and was very direct with my
parents my nurse said your son is going
to die I have no time for dead people
my parents you know respected the
doctor’s prescription they they didn’t
know what to do but my parents wouldn’t
just take me home and discard me so they
brought me home five or six years later
I asked my mom I’m like look mom I still
don’t understand how I became deaf and
my mom said it’s the door you were dead
you weren’t deaf you were dead you were
diagnosed and I was like well fine mom
but why didn’t you go ahead and have a
funeral why didn’t you bury me if I was
dead why don’t you forget about me and
my mom said no is it or you you couldn’t
eat you couldn’t breathe but your heart
became deaf I know the dictionary
definition of deaf is someone who is
unable to hear or can’t hear and I
understand and I respect the concept but
I’m here to tell you that definition
does not apply to me and it does not
apply to any person who is deaf someone
invented that idea and applied it to me
I became deaf but I created a new life I
transitioned a new journey I created new
goals I had a new purpose in life at
that time I didn’t know what they were I
lost my hearing but I believe that I
gained so much more than I had before I
didn’t only I didn’t just survive spinal
meningitis but I also survived more
challenging things more challenging
things that I wouldn’t have been able to
overcome where I a hearing person so
back to my story so much of my family
came around they didn’t know what to do
you know they were audiologists they
were speech pathologists who who gave
their opinions of what they should do to
me at you know my time there was no
really real advocacy for me I mean my
parents didn’t know what to do they had
a deaf son they figured life was over
they went to the doctor and you know
they didn’t know how to educate me and
they had a ton of questions it just so
happens that my dad had a wonderful
sister my his sister-in-law actually who
sent a letter to my dad my dad took the
letter and he handed the letter to me
and I read the letter in the letter said
we found a school for deaf it’s really
really far away but I think you should
take your son to it I don’t know if you
guys I don’t know how many of you guys
as parents would empower your
twelve-year-old son to make a decision
for their entire life to make that kind
of educational decision I don’t think
many people
yeah I don’t know if CPS would come take
you away if you let your kids make those
kind of decisions for themselves but my
parents asked me if I wanted to go to
school and I said yes instantly they
started preparing for me to move to the
school I remember my dad and I we we got
on his bicycle I don’t know if you guys
know to much about Burundi but Burundi
is like a tiny little Switzerland it’s
completely mountainous the entire
country so I remember getting on the
bike with my dad and when it was the
uphills we’d walk together when it was
flat we’d both jump on his bike and we’d
ride together gosh we left home at 6
o’clock in the morning and we arrived at
the school round about 8 o’clock at
night took us maybe 13 hours and I
remember that time it was the greatest
trip I’d ever had of in my life with my
father and it was the last one I ever
had it was them we arrived and I was so
excited to go to school my dad
registered me and put my name in and I
remember it was a Monday a Monday
morning we sat together and he wrote out
a note to me on a piece of paper he
couldn’t communicate with me so he wrote
on a piece of paper it said it’s the
door you start school tomorrow
I believe you can achieve anything you
want in your life I won’t see you again
until Christmas time when I come to pick
month later he was killed not only my
father but also my grandfather and my
grandmother several of my cousin’s my
friends my classmates many of them were
killed during the Burundi genocide that
occurred in 1993 I remember it was
October 21st October 21st 1993 my family
was gone that month but I’m here to tell
you that he did everything he possibly
today I’m standing in front of you guys
and it reminded me again of this moment
in 2010 at Qualcomm Stadium
I received the greatest honor of being
homecoming king of this university not
only was I honored with that but I stood
there and I thought you know my dad
couldn’t be there to witness it but he
sacrificed so much for me to be able to
be there I wish you could have saw saw
me standing here in front of all of
these most honorable students you know
some of them were former Marines that
that served in the military for six
seven eight years some of them had 4.0
grade point averages some of them were
presidents of some of the most
prestigious fraternities on campus and I
was just that little deaf black kid from
Burundi so what I did is I stood started
ASL club here at San Diego State
University I wanted everybody to have
access to my language in this community
and I’m here to tell you I’m excited to
announce that this fall they’re going to
be opening up the program for all
students to take American Sign Language
here but I wish my dad could have seen
me I wish he could have seen me sign so
for his sacrifice for me so that I could
felt like I have the same responsibility
that it’s my turn to start writing for
other deaf people riding a bicycle for
other deaf people so that I can provide
that experience to them again as I told
you I’m deaf and I’m proud of it I can’t
hear anything but I can feel everything
in my day everyday life I function as a
normal person not only for me but I want
to be able to teach dance I enjoy
dancing but at the same time that’s not
where our abilities are limited you can
do so much more if you can really focus
on your inner voice all of you guys have
this idea of inner voice and I want to
talk with you guys my focus in my life
has been to pedal to ride a bike the
metaphorical bike for deaf children and
deaf youth all over the world you know
not all deaf kids have a father like
mine or a mother like mine who is
supportive of their access to education
and I want to do that but I can’t do it
alone
so I started a company called ideal
international deaf education advocacy
and leadership because I believe that we
should invest more in the abilities of
people our our world and our systems are
designed to invest in this idea that
people need to be fixed that we need to
don’t understand why we spend fifty
thousand dollars to fix my tiny little
ears but we can invest even five
thousand dollars for one child to have
access to solid education the world is
willing to spend over fifty thousand
dollars for cochlear implant surgery to
but some people like us you know if we
only invest $500 for one deaf youth in
Africa to go to school for one full year
imagine if we spent all that money that
we’re spending on fixing people’s ears
and we spent it on education instead the
World Health Organization statistics are
very clear there are 360 million or more
those are people who essentially
struggle with hearing so they have
hearing loss the World Federation of the
Deaf did an ad vestigation that said
about 70 million people in the world
communicate using sign language now from
all of those 70 million people 80
percent live important developing
countries and what’s worse is that 83
percent or if you flip the statistic 17
percent but 83 percent have no access to
education at all zero access to
education only 17 percent of deaf people
around the world have access to
education now from those seventeen
percent with access to education only
three percent have access to bilingual
education three percent can you imagine
where are the ninety seven percent of
those people in the world those ninety
seven percent have no access to
bilingual education bilingual education
meaning that they can learn to read and
write in English and express themselves
in sign language they don’t have access
believe that you guys want to change it
I want to change it and I believe that
something I want to share with you
that’s important as well it’s you know
from my experience my journey from a
hearing person to a deaf person I I
believe that all of us on the inside
have this notion of inner voice there’s
a voice within us that calls us to focus
on what’s best for us and for other
people many of you understand that
message but again if you can just focus
I know that we enjoy watching seeing I
know we enjoy hearing and I’m here to
tell you that uh you could become deaf
at any time any of you could any of us
could become blind at any time or lose
our sight but we’ll continue living if
we lose our inner voice that’s what I
today it’s my strong conviction that if
you all can focus on your inner voice
like me I lost my hearing but I gained
the ability to really focus on my inner
voice which called me to advocate for my
brothers and for my sisters across the
world and to share with you guys my
message that deafness is not a
deficiency deafness is not a disability
we’re all different that’s all
we’re just all different I communicate
with sign language I communicate with my
facial expressions I don’t hear music
perhaps through my ears but I feel it
through my body it’s my conviction that
tonight today you all can focus on your
inner voices and with that you can shot
your competencies your skills will shine
and I want you to invest those skills
into what connects us not what makes us
different we’re all different for a
reason and if we bring all of our skills
and all of our talents together I
believe you can help even me join me in
bridging the world one community at a
time thank you [Applause]