From Disability to Capability: Teaching Deaf Children in Haiti

If you visit the Institut Montfort pour Enfants Sourds at recess – you will see a normal looking playground. Children will be playing volleyball, rocking up and down on see-saws and chasing each other around in circles. But while you may not see anything different – you will hear it. It will be completely silent, because all of the students are deaf.

In the slums of Port au Prince, Haiti that surround the school, 80 percent of children do not have the chance to go to school. Deaf children not only face the challenge of their handicap but live in extreme poverty, with few opportunities.

But at the Institut Montfort, hearing-impaired children are given the attention and tools to realize their full potential. The students learn to adapt to life in the hearing world, studying both traditional subjects and working trades. The education they receive is their passport to the future – providing them with the ability to communicate and earn a living.

The results speak for themselves. In a country where 75 percent of the population has no formal employment, alumni of the Institut Montfort have gone on be pastors, university graduates and active members of their communities. Some find jobs in Haiti's factories—something that would have been impossible without their education. Others use skills learned in school like embroidery to start their own businesses.

Most importantly, the school provides an oasis of peace and care in a country wracked by chronic conflict and backbreaking poverty. In the face of challenges both personal and community-wide, children build a new future.

Learn about Institut Montfort pour Enfants Sourds >>

Read more about World Schoolhouse's work in Haiti >>