Graduates of Demonstration School for the Deaf at Mampong-Akuapem in the Eastern Region say they feel neglected by society due to their disabilities because people continuously refuse to pay them after they have rendered various services to them.
According to the headmistress of the school, Trudy Akusika Segbefia, after completing school the graduates are encouraged to set up their own businesses because people do not employ them, but those who patronise their services take advantage of them and refuse to pay for services rendered.
“My students always run to us after they have graduated and complain that they do not want to go back because their customers refuse to pay them due to their disabilities. This has been going on for so many years and nothing has been done about it,” she said.
Madam Segbefia added that the situation had created angst among the continuing students who are yet to graduate and do not know how society would receive them.
According to the headmistress, during vacation, the students refuse to go home because they are mocked at and looked down upon, “which is very painful”.
She appealed to the public to shy away from such acts because most of the students are very talented and creative.
She said, “I call on you all to please stop that because these students have intelligent ideas that can help develop society and also create jobs for the unemployed. Don’t look at their disabilities to cheat, judge and mock them but rather encourage them to boost their confidence level to work and feel accepted.”
Madam Segbefia also called on parents and guardians who bring their children to the school not to abandon them but rather visit them for them to feel loved and not rejected.
She explained to the DAILY HERITAGE that “most parents abandon their children here because they feel embarrassed to have a child who is deaf or physically challenged because of their status in society.”
The headmistress appealed to institutions to help the school to put up more classrooms and dormitories because the number of students keeps growing.
She explained that the students from kindergarten to senior high school are many and that they have no other option than to admit more students to occupy the uncompleted building.
“We want philanthropists and other institutions to help the school to build more classrooms and dormitory for us because we want more space in the class to prevent any outbreak of disease due to congestion,” she appealed.
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