Health knowledge made personal
 
Many of these people are profoundly or totally Deaf. It is possibly genetic, but much more likely
to be caused by Malaria. There is no
medical intervention,
as it’s a developing country with only limited health resources. The number of Deaf people is unknown due to country
being made up of thousands of islands, many of them are very isolated. We do know the ratio of Deaf is very high but
there are no statistics to verify it.
There are no known programmes to help prevent further deafness.
  
Brent Macpherson from Stretch Productions heard about the centre when he met an interpreter from Wellington who had worked there as a volunteer. He had always wanted to do a documentary about Deaf Aborigines, but it was too difficult to access these people in Outback Australia and the plan went on the backburner. When he heard about the Deaf Villagers in the Solomon Islands, he thought it was a great opportunity for a documentary, so went to visit them in June and October 2011. 
Brent plans to produce a documentary to raise the awareness of the Deaf in the Solomon Islands, highlighting the needs of the San Isidro Care Centre. All proceeds from the documentary will go back to the Centre to fund much needed resources for the Deaf. Right now, the centre needs more dormitories built, especially for boys, a proper kitchen or dining hall, a chapel, better equipped classrooms and a school bus. They also need trained teachers of the Deaf, and qualified interpreters. 
 The
documentary shoot is planned for May/June 2012. $80,000 NZD needs to be raised for the project to go ahead. All monies from the sale of the Documentary
and DVDs will go straight back to the San Isidro Care Centre. He has full support from the National
Foundation of the Deaf. (NFD)
If you're interesting in knowing more, a short video has been produced. You can view it here. Click on this to view Video. If you would like to donate to this worthy project, please click on the donate button below. On the second page of donations, please use the drop down menu to select Solomon Islands to make sure the money goes to the correct project. Every little bit helps! |
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