Facing Challenges Together

INTRODUCTION

The person whom I chose to work with is my uncle. Nestor Castillo. He is a 26 year old Dominican Republic native and he is deaf. The reason why I thought him a good candidate for my research is because of the fact that he was not born deaf. Therefore, there is a contrast between how life was before and how it is now.

Instead of trying to impress with four syllable words, I thought it would be a better ides to keep my project very simple and practical. I would like to focus on the issues which cross one’s mind at one point or another but are then easily dismissed. By this, I mean the things that need to be done but are thought of as less important.

Nestor Castillo has been coping with his disability for 23 years. When he was 3 years old, his mother began to notice that when she called him, he did not respond as before or even look her way. She became suspicious and her suspicions were confirmed when one day he ran out into the street to get a ball and almost got by a truck because he did not hear it approaching. When she checked his ears, she found a white substance in them. Lack of money was what stopped her from having him treated and when she finally got the capital she needed, she was told that her son was almost completely deaf and that it could not be reversed. However, there was a treatment that he could be subjected to, but again, money was a problem.

Fortunately, when Nestor began school, which was a Catholic school run by nuns, they had a special group of children just like Nestor. They took them on field trips and taught them sign language, how to read lips and also how to know what someone was saying by feeling their or throat. They also gave him a hearing aid.

As a young adolescent, Nestor was loved a lot in our village at home, Consuelo. He worked part-time while in high school at a grocery store and also helped out a friend in a garage where they fixed cars and motorbikes. Now, in Dominican Republic, motorbikes are used as much as cars for transporting people as if they were taxis or buses. Nestor was one of these bike drivers and a mechanic and was totally trusted by everyone who knew him. When he arrived in Antigua, he, after quite a long time found a job in construction and still works in that area.

THE PROBLEMS

Although you may think that at 3 years of age, a child is not as appreciative of life as an adult, you will find it very different if you are deaf.

Nestor says he remembers how frustrated he used to get because as he was growing up, his friends would grow impatient when they would tell him something and he could not hear them. Also, some children would be very mean to him because of the fact that he could not hear what was going on around him.

However, everything he says was not bad. Although he could not listen to things, he could feel them. For example, he can feel the music tempo in his feet. He says that the hearing aid makes his life easier and he is totally capable of leading a normal life. The only thing that frustrates him is some persons’ ignorance at times.

Most persons with disabilities just ask for one thing. They just want to be treated equally and not as if they are totally useless. Sometimes this is done consciously and sometimes it is done unconsciously. Persons sometimes make jokes which hurt a disabled person’s feelings although they may not show it. Some person are just over sensitive and helpful and just make them become frustrated.

THE SOLUTIONS

I think that the government should invest more in disabled persons. More centers and jobs should be offered to the disabled. Nestor and I feel that most of the time disabled persons are not given a fair chance to pursue their careers and goals as they would like to. Some of these problems can be corrected early before they develop into disabilities, as in Nestor’s case. The government should give assistance to these persons in need and provide more special schools. This is very important because they find themselves in a place where they aren’t made fun of because they are with persons who know exactly what they are going through. Nestor says that this was very helpful to him.

Although being deaf or partially deaf may not be looked at as a major disability, my uncle says that it is so hard to be able to hear everything around you and suddenly lose that and live in eternal silence. What we take for granted is what other people crave.

Awareness is very important also. There should be more persons dedicated to making others know what is going on. It is incredible how many persons are not aware of the effects that they have on disabled persons, whether it is negative or positive. I as one to find out. It should not be assumed that people know. The government should do their part in donating towards these causes and making people aware of these problems these are very simple things but if taken into account, a difference is guaranteed.

CONCLUSION

I wanted to make my project as straight forward as possible so that persons with disabilities could easily identify themselves with these different situations. Believe it or not, these are the simple things that affect them most.

I am in class with a disabled person. He is in a wheelchair as a result of a bad injury and I do not look at him any differently. However, I will admit to having participated in stupid jokes before but I have learned through this research to be more sensitive to people’s feelings.

I believe that if a more serious course of action is taken more people will be moves to help disabled persons and to treat them with more sensitivity. Some disabled persons have a worse internal problem, which is low self-esteem. I hope my project can help lift their spirits and make them become encouraged to move on in spite of their obstacles.