“I may not talk very well but because you are with me, mum, I am very intelligent, my friends love me and tell me I have a beautiful smile“. This is what Zaid said to his mother to thank her for being there. Since attending the EHIS centre in Aleppo, the communications skills of this ten-year-old boy with hearing problems have really improved.
Zaid is bright-eyed and has had hearing problems since birth. He was first fitted with a hearing aid at the age of three. He is now being taken care of at the EHIS centre in Aleppo, supported by the “Seeds of Hope” Syria Emergency programme. It was there that Zaid gradually started pronouncing words more clearly. His mother follows him constantly, and has always been committed to making sure her son lives as normal life as possible like all the other children: “I found it difficult at first, but then we began to understand each other even without speaking”.
When Zaid was little and not yet old enough to go to school, he was unaware that he was different. However, when Zaid started attending a public school with children who didn’t have hearing difficulties, he began to wonder why they could speak and he could not.
As soon as he walked into the EHIS centre, his awareness of being different disappeared because he met children with the same difficulty and started to make friends. “The way the teachers behaved towards Zaid, and the way they improved my communication with him made everything much easier”, said his mother.
When staff at the school asked the child what he would like to say to his mum, this is what he said: “I may be weak or not talk well, but because you are with me, mum, I am very intelligent, my friends love me and tell me that I have a beautiful smile. Thank you, Mum”.