Imagine not being able
to communicate with other persons, whenever power goes off…? This is the situation,
in which students of the Volta school for the deaf in Hohoe found themselves,
due to their hearing and speech impairment.
Because of the
current power crisis, the students who communicate through sign language, can
no longer interact in the evenings during power outages, as they unable to see
and interpret their own ‘signings’ [gestures] in darkness.
The situation has therefore
left with no option than to retire to early bed, since the school also lack a
standby generator to remedy the situation.
Headmistress of the
school, Madam Diddy Ntim told Volta Online in an interview that, the
erratic power situation is adversely affecting school activities in the evenings
and appealed to benevolent individuals and organizations to come to their aid.
“We use our eyes to
see what we sign, so when the lights are off, everything goes mute, because we
cannot communicate in darkness. So we need a standby generator to use in times
of light off.. We’ will be grateful if people will support us.”
The school founded
in 1971 and solely funded by the government of Ghana, currently has a population
of about 400 students.
Madam Ntim, has therefore asked for public support
in terms of food items and sponsorships to complement government’s efforts in
educating these children with special needs.
