Team of specialized professionals supports more than 150 deaf families in Colombia through an “education for life”
In a world of non-listeners, the most important thing is knowing how to listen
By Margarita Aguilar
Only 5% of young people with some level of hearing disability in Colombia find opportunities to access higher education, according to a report by the Ibero-American University Corporation released in sight of World Zero Discrimination Day 2023. This highlights the misinformation around services for the recognition of linguistic diversity and the lack of government projects that strengthen respect for the deaf community, resulting in educational inequity at all levels.
The ICAL (Colombian Institute of Hearing and Language) Foundation — dedicated to improving the quality of life of people with hearing disabilities and adequately educating children in preschool and high school for more than half a decade —, since its beginning, has always been a source of inspiration and improvement. The Brigar and the Samper families, both with deaf members, decided to undertake this valuable mission, with the Mexican Institute of Hearing and Language being their main reference.
Currently, the ICAL Foundation provides comprehensive services for the deaf, aiming to improve inclusion processes from two approaches; health and education. The ICAL country school, located in the central savannah of Colombia, is made up of 170 students, 90% of whom are profoundly deaf or users of some language device.
“It is very difficult for a deaf child to have high life projections without a family. That is why we involve families in our work with the children, so they can find positions as technicians or even professionals,” says Julian Falla, general director of the ICAL Foundation for Deaf Children.
The ICAL professional team focuses on understanding families and what they can offer to their life project in order to help them move forward. The methodologies they implement are based on biculturalism, where they get to know their language to welcome them and then introduce them to a joint language — in this case, Colombian sign language.
“Listeners must understand that, if they visit any physical space of ICAL, they are entering a space of deaf culture which must be respected”, Julian assures.
The teachers of the foundation are dedicated to training and accompanying boys or girls with Special Educational Needs (SEN). A student is considered to have Special Educational Needs (SEN) when he or she requires, during a period of his or her schooling or throughout it, certain educational support and attention due to having a disability.
Victoria Olmos, current rector, built her professional life at the ICAL country school, and recognizes that being part of this family is an incredible opportunity.
“ICAL chose me. We raise happy children because we have shown that, with this, unimaginable things can be achieved,” Victoria tells me, recounting her experience, which comes from being an apprentice, teacher, coordinator and then, in 2008, accepting the challenge of becoming a rector. Since then, ICAL touched her soul and those of many more people in different ways.
Victoria dreams that bullying of children with disabilities, which for her is the highest in the country, will decrease. “Inclusion unfortunately became a law, and not a cultural tool. It is not good for any child with a disability, even less for a deaf child, to be educated in spaces where others do not know their language, where the teacher does not have adequate experience to meet their needs and, to top it all off, the institutions are not suitable for their development,” says Victoria.
At ICAL they use the reverse inclusion model, in which they take up elements of the Montessori Method pedagogy. To this extent, the teacher at Colegio Campestre ICAL guides processes, enhances skills and proposes challenges and strategies for the construction of knowledge as a means to create cognitive solutions in students.
“Project work has given very good results. You would be surprised to see the things we have achieved in cognitive and deaf children. Recently, in the mathematics Olympics, in addition to being recognized for their educational progress, they learned how to manage money and the risks of spending it without purpose, like in a casino. We educate for life”, she explains.
Families, being the driving force in this entire education process, also get involved with the foundation. Parents are informed about caregiver rights, get to learn sign language with free classes and attend special events where they can see their children’s progress and feel proud.
“I found ICAL to be the right school for my children. We are a deaf family and my two children study here, and it has been a very nice experience. I am sure that my children will have an excellent future”, one mother of the ICAL family states.
Want to support this cause?
If you want to accompany these children and promote the existence of more foundations like the ICAL Foundation in the world, contact the number +57 320 8498139.
