[Music]
hey good afternoon everybody before I
start I just want to say you got the
round of applause absolutely wrong and
Deaf culture we raise our hand like this
so this is how we give a round of
applause
excellent so I’ve been asked to come
along today to deliver a presentation
about the experiences I’ve had growing
up and the changes I’ve encountered
I’ve underwent a lot of transition I was
born in Ethiopia in Africa and in 1992
we were at the tail end of the Civil War
and my parents were granted refugee
status and we moved to Kenya so when I
was three around about three I moved to
Kenya and for the next five years I
wasn’t really accessing any education
and I wasn’t really developing a sense
of identity and my parents started to
have suspicions about what my ability to
hear and when they would shock me or
they would try and call me
I was very unresponsive so they thought
well there’s a possibility that there
may be difficulty with hearing or he may
be deaf so of course my parents grieved
this situation they were very unsure
about what was going on with me they
continued with argyus tests to determine
my level of hearing and they thought
well is Mohammed just being a bit of a
nuisance and ignoring us or is he in
fact gradually losing his hearing what
my parents then decided to do was to
have a meeting with the Imam and they
tried to say a blessing from the Quran
to restore whatever hearing I had so
upon this blast thing my parents said so
Muhammad can you hear Noi and I thought
in my infinite wisdom as a young person
I said of course I can but in actual
fact I was still I was still gradually
losing my hearing I was then admitted to
school it was my sister I just want the
that you know that she was born born
profoundly deaf so it’s not a case
that she acquired hearing loss later on
in life like I did so I was admitted or
enrolled into a hearing school but it
had a classroom for deaf pupils and that
was only one small classroom so for all
intents and purposes I was educated in a
mainstream environment and we use K SL
or Kenyan Sign Language
to access a curriculum so it’s very
happy I was there in the class with my
sister and then once I came to a
secondary school age I was moved to a
boarding school in Nairobi and when I
moved I had one of the biggest most
significant changes in my life because
the boarding school were all the pupils
were entirely deaf they were all sign
language users it meant they escaped an
environment of being animate and a
minority where I was exposed to bullying
lack of awareness and understanding
about my deafness and to school where
everybody was using sign language it was
beautiful everybody I was surrounded
with people using Kenyan sign language
and I mean I’m not only talking about
the pupils the catering staff food’s use
sign language the managers the teachers
everybody used this language that was
completely inclusive and wholly
accessible to me regardless of what part
of the school you are in if you’re
walking down the corridor or you were in
the classroom trying to access a
curriculum no one was using the spoken
word everything was done in a visual
communication that was entirely
accessible for me and it was really my
my deaf world and it was incredible
I stayed in that school for
approximately three years and at the end
my family and I we were we were offered
an interview about the prospect of
moving to the UK and for me I wasn’t
really okay with areas in the UK I had
some degree of understanding about
Liverpool Manchester I didn’t really
know about the particular way of life
but I remember distinctly women I was
asked a question during this interview
they said Mohammed what would you like
to do if you were in fact he moved to
the UK and I
thought well of course I want to be the
president so I thought this was wholly
attainable in this new world whenever I
changed and they said okay that’s that’s
something you can strive towards and I
remember vividly the day I arrived in
the UK with my family on the 10th of
December and my jaw hit the floor I
couldn’t believe what I seen because it
was snowing and the landscape in Kenya
as you can imagine is entirely different
and I’d never seen snow before and I
thought what another goodness is this
and I thought right I’m gonna have to
try in acclimatize I had my 10 layers on
t-trying will stay for like this cold
but I was still absolutely freezing and
I remember coming off the plane just
thinking where am i what is going on and
I like I say I’d never seen snow before
so I seen it and there was this blanket
of snow and I thinking what is this so I
thought it was some sort of salt
material and so I thought I won’t try
and eat it
Oh take the risk but I remember touching
it and it was absolutely freezing and
barren and nine this was a completely
new experience for me and I saw people
picking this white substance up and
throwing it and I just thought what is
going on and then I remember I being
relocated to our house and we had no TV
or no means of entertainment and I
remember in the first few months of
moving here I family would gather around
around a heater in the in the evenings
and just converse and I remember they
had the climate and the brightness of
the snow really impacted upon my
sleeping patterns and it was just so
bizarre I just it took me a long time to
acclimatize because I was coming over
from Kenya and it was a complete shift
in daylight hours as well so as I say I
was I was gradually getting used to the
UK environment or UK life over time but
I wasn’t accessing any energy any
education nor was I being exposed to the
deaf community and I had this impression
that will maybe they’ll sign somewhere
they’ll use Kenyan sign language or some
form of that
so when I was after about six months I
remember meeting deaf people are meeting
interpreters and they were using British
sign language and I remember coming up
coming up against this huge
communication barrier because I only
knew Canyon sign language whereas
everybody here use British sign language
it was an entirely different different
language system so the college that I
was accessing later on really supported
me in learning my level 1 and level 2
accreditations in British sign language
and over a year my confidence started to
grow and develop I started to engage
more with the community the deaf
community that is and practicing my
profession proficiency and developing
the language a lot more and once I gain
those communication skills my life again
started to change as I say deafness
didn’t just happen to me it gradually
came about and as a result it had
impacted upon my family relationships
because I could no longer communicate
effectively with my parents who are
hearing the only person I could really
have a lucid conversation with was my
sister and we would we would were thick
as thieves we were with one another we
would be playing together we would eat
together and we would be constantly
chatting through sign language and we
would always say we’d like our own
secret language so whenever our parents
would see us laughing they’d be thinking
what’s good and what and what is going
on what’s what’s what he’s laughing at
and it was just such an incredible
opportunity for my sister and ID bond
and consolidate our family relationship
through this use of sign language I do
remember after moving to the UK I was
enrolled into college and it was
recommended by one of my teachers to go
to the Manchester deaf Center because it
had an established youth group
specifically for young deaf and hard of
hearing people and they do a lot of
trips they do a lot of sports and it’s
all engaged it’s all designed around the
engagement of young
people and promoting their welfare so I
started volunteering at the deaf Center
and I started to establish my social
networks and that’s when I was presented
with the opportunity of working as a
youth worker at the Dare Center and as
time went on I realized I had this
hidden skill or this hidden passion for
working with young deaf people engaging
in activities engaging in sports and
this time at dawn I was promoted to from
youth worker to youth leader in the
space of three or four years so there
was an incredible sense of achievement
after the transitions the extensive
transitions that I underwent in my life
and it’s opened up a new window of
opportunity for me in terms of my career
and my career prospects of you working
in youth work so no longer my interested
in being the president but I’m much more
interested in doing a youth lady the
youth leading or youth work so that’s
what I always say to young deaf people
if you have any aspirations then please
do go for it you can do anything you can
achieve anything and just the example
that I’ve given you of working my way up
to become a youth leader it’s opened up
so many opportunities for me and it’s
expanded my mind in so many different
ways and it’s enabled me to meet a lot
of young people and see what they’re
capable of and their own capacity so
thank you very much for listening to me
today
[Applause] [Music]
hey good afternoon everybody before I
start I just want to say you got the
round of applause absolutely wrong and
Deaf culture we raise our hand like this
so this is how we give a round of
applause
excellent so I’ve been asked to come
along today to deliver a presentation
about the experiences I’ve had growing
up and the changes I’ve encountered
I’ve underwent a lot of transition I was
born in Ethiopia in Africa and in 1992
we were at the tail end of the Civil War
and my parents were granted refugee
status and we moved to Kenya so when I
was three around about three I moved to
Kenya and for the next five years I
wasn’t really accessing any education
and I wasn’t really developing a sense
of identity and my parents started to
have suspicions about what my ability to
hear and when they would shock me or
they would try and call me
I was very unresponsive so they thought
well there’s a possibility that there
may be difficulty with hearing or he may
be deaf so of course my parents grieved
this situation they were very unsure
about what was going on with me they
continued with argyus tests to determine
my level of hearing and they thought
well is Mohammed just being a bit of a
nuisance and ignoring us or is he in
fact gradually losing his hearing what
my parents then decided to do was to
have a meeting with the Imam and they
tried to say a blessing from the Quran
to restore whatever hearing I had so
upon this blast thing my parents said so
Muhammad can you hear Noi and I thought
in my infinite wisdom as a young person
I said of course I can but in actual
fact I was still I was still gradually
losing my hearing I was then admitted to
school it was my sister I just want the
that you know that she was born born
profoundly deaf so it’s not a case
that she acquired hearing loss later on
in life like I did so I was admitted or
enrolled into a hearing school but it
had a classroom for deaf pupils and that
was only one small classroom so for all
intents and purposes I was educated in a
mainstream environment and we use K SL
or Kenyan Sign Language
to access a curriculum so it’s very
happy I was there in the class with my
sister and then once I came to a
secondary school age I was moved to a
boarding school in Nairobi and when I
moved I had one of the biggest most
significant changes in my life because
the boarding school were all the pupils
were entirely deaf they were all sign
language users it meant they escaped an
environment of being animate and a
minority where I was exposed to bullying
lack of awareness and understanding
about my deafness and to school where
everybody was using sign language it was
beautiful everybody I was surrounded
with people using Kenyan sign language
and I mean I’m not only talking about
the pupils the catering staff food’s use
sign language the managers the teachers
everybody used this language that was
completely inclusive and wholly
accessible to me regardless of what part
of the school you are in if you’re
walking down the corridor or you were in
the classroom trying to access a
curriculum no one was using the spoken
word everything was done in a visual
communication that was entirely
accessible for me and it was really my
my deaf world and it was incredible
I stayed in that school for
approximately three years and at the end
my family and I we were we were offered
an interview about the prospect of
moving to the UK and for me I wasn’t
really okay with areas in the UK I had
some degree of understanding about
Liverpool Manchester I didn’t really
know about the particular way of life
but I remember distinctly women I was
asked a question during this interview
they said Mohammed what would you like
to do if you were in fact he moved to
the UK and I
thought well of course I want to be the
president so I thought this was wholly
attainable in this new world whenever I
changed and they said okay that’s that’s
something you can strive towards and I
remember vividly the day I arrived in
the UK with my family on the 10th of
December and my jaw hit the floor I
couldn’t believe what I seen because it
was snowing and the landscape in Kenya
as you can imagine is entirely different
and I’d never seen snow before and I
thought what another goodness is this
and I thought right I’m gonna have to
try in acclimatize I had my 10 layers on
t-trying will stay for like this cold
but I was still absolutely freezing and
I remember coming off the plane just
thinking where am i what is going on and
I like I say I’d never seen snow before
so I seen it and there was this blanket
of snow and I thinking what is this so I
thought it was some sort of salt
material and so I thought I won’t try
and eat it
Oh take the risk but I remember touching
it and it was absolutely freezing and
barren and nine this was a completely
new experience for me and I saw people
picking this white substance up and
throwing it and I just thought what is
going on and then I remember I being
relocated to our house and we had no TV
or no means of entertainment and I
remember in the first few months of
moving here I family would gather around
around a heater in the in the evenings
and just converse and I remember they
had the climate and the brightness of
the snow really impacted upon my
sleeping patterns and it was just so
bizarre I just it took me a long time to
acclimatize because I was coming over
from Kenya and it was a complete shift
in daylight hours as well so as I say I
was I was gradually getting used to the
UK environment or UK life over time but
I wasn’t accessing any energy any
education nor was I being exposed to the
deaf community and I had this impression
that will maybe they’ll sign somewhere
they’ll use Kenyan sign language or some
form of that
so when I was after about six months I
remember meeting deaf people are meeting
interpreters and they were using British
sign language and I remember coming up
coming up against this huge
communication barrier because I only
knew Canyon sign language whereas
everybody here use British sign language
it was an entirely different different
language system so the college that I
was accessing later on really supported
me in learning my level 1 and level 2
accreditations in British sign language
and over a year my confidence started to
grow and develop I started to engage
more with the community the deaf
community that is and practicing my
profession proficiency and developing
the language a lot more and once I gain
those communication skills my life again
started to change as I say deafness
didn’t just happen to me it gradually
came about and as a result it had
impacted upon my family relationships
because I could no longer communicate
effectively with my parents who are
hearing the only person I could really
have a lucid conversation with was my
sister and we would we would were thick
as thieves we were with one another we
would be playing together we would eat
together and we would be constantly
chatting through sign language and we
would always say we’d like our own
secret language so whenever our parents
would see us laughing they’d be thinking
what’s good and what and what is going
on what’s what’s what he’s laughing at
and it was just such an incredible
opportunity for my sister and ID bond
and consolidate our family relationship
through this use of sign language I do
remember after moving to the UK I was
enrolled into college and it was
recommended by one of my teachers to go
to the Manchester deaf Center because it
had an established youth group
specifically for young deaf and hard of
hearing people and they do a lot of
trips they do a lot of sports and it’s
all engaged it’s all designed around the
engagement of young
people and promoting their welfare so I
started volunteering at the deaf Center
and I started to establish my social
networks and that’s when I was presented
with the opportunity of working as a
youth worker at the Dare Center and as
time went on I realized I had this
hidden skill or this hidden passion for
working with young deaf people engaging
in activities engaging in sports and
this time at dawn I was promoted to from
youth worker to youth leader in the
space of three or four years so there
was an incredible sense of achievement
after the transitions the extensive
transitions that I underwent in my life
and it’s opened up a new window of
opportunity for me in terms of my career
and my career prospects of you working
in youth work so no longer my interested
in being the president but I’m much more
interested in doing a youth lady the
youth leading or youth work so that’s
what I always say to young deaf people
if you have any aspirations then please
do go for it you can do anything you can
achieve anything and just the example
that I’ve given you of working my way up
to become a youth leader it’s opened up
so many opportunities for me and it’s
expanded my mind in so many different
ways and it’s enabled me to meet a lot
of young people and see what they’re
capable of and their own capacity so
thank you very much for listening to me
today
[Applause] [Music]
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