Japanese embassy hands over new school for the deaf   By Patrick Joubert |09 February 2022

The Japanese embassy in Seychelles has handed over the deaf centre at Mont Fleuri to the Association of People with Hearing Impairment (Aphi).

The new school for the deaf has been made possible through a donation of 10 million Japanese yen (R1.3 million) from the Japanese government under its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects for NGOs and local governments.

It is a place for the students to meet, study and access all the related quality services and programmes adapted to their condition.

It was the Japanese chargé d’affaire in Seychelles, Tominaga Makoto, who had the honour to officially open and hand over the centre to the chairperson of Aphi, Anita Gardner, in a small ceremony held at the premises yesterday afternoon.

Present were the Minister for Education, Dr Justin Valentin; the Minister for Youth, Sports and Family, Marie Céline Zialor; among other guests.

The school is equipped to cater for children aged four to 19 years.

Apart from the usual classrooms for teaching sign language to students at different levels, the centre also boasts a kitchen on the ground floor to prepare meals and for the training of students;  a sick bay, tea room and two gender hostels for accommodation of children from Praslin and La Digue, located on the first floor; and an art and craft room, a computer room, a sports section, a hearing mould lab and rooms for overseas trainers, located on the second floor, among other facilities.

The centre, which is already operational, has had the visit of President Wavel Ramkalawan who pledged his administration’s support, through the Ministry of Education, to provide the deaf children with the best education. He was accompanied at that time by Minister Valentin.

 Apart from teaching deaf students, the centre is also conducting courses to stakeholders who are assisting people with hearing impairment in their line of duties and to those who wish to pursue a career in the domain.

The country has an estimated 1,000 deaf people of different ages.

Before coming into the new centre, the school for the deaf was operating at the Au Cap primary school.

In her opening remarks, Mrs Gardner stated that the centre not only shows that deaf people’s rights are being taken into account but that the country is abiding by the international convention in regards to the rights of the deaf.

She thanked the people of Japan for their contributions towards the project and to all other local stakeholders in helping in the realisation of the project.

Mr Makoto, on his part, said the embassy is happy with the work done to build the centre.

He added that the Japanese government is also happy with the continued working collaboration with our government to implement various socio-economic projects in the country especially in fisheries, maritime, environment and in health.

He said that the work collaboration demonstrates the friendship and good relations between Japan and Seychelles.

On behalf of his fellow students, Samuel Morel thanked everyone for contributing to make their learning environment conducive.

During the ceremony the guests were entertained with a song in sign language by the small children. There were also tokens of appreciation by the students for the special guests, in the form of handmade drawings and copies of the sign language dictionary.  The centre has at the moment 10 students of different ages.

The ceremony ended with a tour of the facility.

Work to transform the three-storey building into the centre for the deaf started in April 2018 and ended in September 2020. Aphi was launched in 2005.

The accompanying photos show guests touring the new centre after the official handover ceremony.

Photos by Patrick Joubert