Can you hear me?

By Joana Teresa De Assis Wu

The Macau Deaf Service Center (MDSC) is a nonprofit organization, which was founded on August 3, 1994; the aim of the center is to help the hearing impaired or deaf to get along with modern society through organizing talks, lessons, professional medical support and entertaining events such as barbeques and interest group gatherings, break dance competitions, drama and drawing exhibitions.
Elaine Ho, a 16-year-old girl, is hearing impaired and is one of the service targets of MDSC. The hearing problem also affects her speaking ability. However, she loves playing the piano and faces many difficulties when she learns to play the piano as well as handles her daily life. The center tries to provide help to Elaine and her family as well. With the help of the center, her parents have learned a sign language and are able to talk to her. Elaine's father said, "We felt helpless and hopeless when we first knew that Elaine was hearing impaired, luckily with the help of social workers in the center, we know more about the hearing impaired through professional talks given by doctors. We really thank them a lot, even the hearing machine is sponsored by the center which has lightened our burden."
MDSC not only provides service for the deaf or the hearing impaired, Gina Lei, one of the sign language translators working in the center, claimed that the center also cares about the families of their clients and maintains the relationship with them. Through organizing events, publishing magazines and videos, and maintaining a hotline service, the center has worked hard to change the stereotype that people would normally associate with the deaf. Moreover, as the center is a non-profit organization, it needs to receive donations from others to maintain its daily expenses. Lei said that they always need helpers and professional sign language teachers to help the hearing impaired and their families.
The hearing disability is not an illness or an infectious disease so we should not discriminate against people with such a disability; we should give them and their families love and care. They are always the ones who are neglected; moreover, the resources for the non-profit organization are limited, as Elaine said, "It took
me about two years to wait for a sponsor of a hearing aid. It was sponsored by the center and was pretty expensive. I had to wait on a long list in order to have the equipment as there was limited resource. The Macau government should give more resources to these non-profit organizations in order to provide more services to these disadvantage groups in society."