By Taylor Luck

SALT - Starting off as a small school for the deaf nestled in the scenic hills of the historic city of Salt, the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf has become a major pillar and a model for the Kingdom’s approach and services to persons with disabilities.

Established as the Kingdom’s first educational institution for people with hearing impairments in 1964, the institute has become a centre that provides hearing-impaired children with the opportunity to take a greater role in society and learn more about themselves.

Brother Andrew de Carpentier, who has overseen the institute since 1977, stressed that the children’s achievements are not overcoming hardships or leading ordinary lives, but their ability to do extraordinary things and their unique contribution to society.

“These children are not to be pitied or treated as special, but to be recognised for who they are and their abilities,” he told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

In addition to classroom activities, the institute has been expanding its vocational training centre and now offers a wide range of courses in ceramics, metallurgy, weaving, wood craftsmanship, cooking and computer skills among others, to ensure the young boys and girls have employable skills once they leave the centre.

Earlier this year, the institute inaugurated new facilities including a display area and store to showcase and sell the local crafts in order to help sustain the vocational programmes.

Children at the institute are also latching on to IT skills, using the Internet daily for research, preparing for university or searching for prospective jobs when they leave the centre.

The institute’s ear-mould laboratory, which opened in 1982, employs several area residents to manufacture and repair hearing aids at cost for the public, while its advance testing centre provides consultation for parents who suspect their children may have hearing difficulties.

The centre’s dormitories have a 120-bed capacity, in addition to facilities for the dozens of students who commute to the school daily. At the centre, the youths study, play, cook, clean and socialise, bonding with those who face similar challenges while at the same time enhancing their independence.

Brother Andrew said the independent lifestyle has enabled the children to play a greater role within their families.

“At home these children are often overprotected and become shy. With their time at the institute they become independent and end up going home and taking the initiative. Sometimes they even boss their family around,” he said with a laugh.

In his 32 years as director of the institute, Brother Andrew has seen the organisation expand its services to the local community level, to raise awareness on education for persons with hearing disabilities.

Although perceptions of children with disabilities have been enhanced, obstacles still exist to their leading full lives.

A major obstacle, he said, is the lack of assistance or “signers” at higher educational institutions in the Kingdom, limiting and hindering the dreams and aspirations of fully capable and bright young students eager to play a role in the country’s development.

According to staff at the centre, many of whom attended the institute themselves, it has provided a launching pad for their future careers as they have attended international conferences and developed regional sign language.

The institute has also become a regional training centre for teachers and care providers, hosting training and sign language workshops in places like Yemen and Iraq while hosting experts in the sector from across the world.

“People with hearing disabilities have distinct advantages. They speak a universal language,” Brother Andrew said, noting that when attending international conferences, deaf persons do not need translators.

Over the past several years, the institute has focused on community-based rehabilitation in order to better reach persons with disabilities in rural villages, refugee camps and urban neighbourhoods, and integrate them into their local communities.

As part of its efforts to decentralise services for the disabled, the institute has established a centre in Al Jofeh that provides economic opportunities for persons with disabilities in the Ghor, home to several of the Kingdom’s poverty pockets.

Despite its expansion, staff members insist that the main core of the institute has remained the same since it was a small school in the hills: Persons with disabilities across the Kingdom deserve the same opportunities as any other citizen.

“We are all here for a purpose,” he said.