Teacher Training Workshop

Pakistan Association of the Deaf conducted a Teacher Training Workshop at PAD’s premises. Mr. Zeshan, The regional Representative of DEF (The Deaf Empowerment Foundation – Netherlands) was the main host. The main purpose of this course was to deliver modern methodology and teaching techniques that could be used to adopt a teaching style that would enable deaf children and youngsters to learn their course with understanding.

Teachers of various deaf schools were invited to attend this workshop. The workshop will be based on five sessions, each session of two hour duration and on Saturdays. PAD, as a national level representative organization of deaf people of Pakistan felt the importance to invite teachers of various schools, because PAD’s aim is to empower deaf by disseminating useful knowledge to them. The turnover was quite encouraging.

The inauguration ceremony was arranged on first day of workshop. Ms. Fauzia Wahab, Dr. Saira Bano, Mr. Shabbir and others were prefsent in the event. Ms. Fazila Shamim, Mr. Shahid Ali and Mr. Aqeel-ur-Rehman were there to interpret the sign language to speech and vice versa.

The members of executive committee Mr. Irfan Mumtaz, Mr. Kamran Tariq, Mr. Syed Amin Ahmed, Mr. Syed Mashhood and Mr. Furqan Hassan were also present in the ceremony.

Ceremony started with the recitation of a surah from the Holy Quran. Mr. Hassan Khan (a brilliant hearing impaired child) recited the surah. Later, Mr. Zeshan from UK addressed the participants.

Mr. Irfan Mumtaz (President – Pakistan Association of the Deaf) thanked Ms. Fauzia Wahab, Dr. Saira Bano, Mrs. Jabeen, as well as other participants for their presence. He also appreciated Mr. Zeshan for helping PAD to organize this workshop. Importance of learning new techniques and teaching methodology was also highlighted by Mr. Irfan. He said that for the first time in Pakistan, such workshop has been organized by PAD with the help of Mr. Zeshan (DEF – Netherlands). Mr. Irfan said that Mr. Zeshan visited Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi but he gave first priority to PAD. He also informed participants about Basic English Literacy Course, ESOL, UK curriculum, offering from Mr. Zeshan and taking place with co-ordination of DEF & PAD at PAD premises.

Ms. Fauzia Wahab (Member National Assembly) appreciated the efforts of Mr. Zeshan from UK for conducting this workshop and imparting English knowledge to deaf students.

Dr. Saira Bano (Ko-Ordination Group) did appreciate PAD and mentioned in her speech, “Kalia Group is always there to help PAD, as well as its all associated members in Pakistan. Dr. Saira Bano had also added that she had learned a little bit of PSL (Pakistani Sign language), after building up a deeper relationship with PAD. She said that the “Kalia Group” would be happy to do more effort for the betterment of PAD as well as the deaf community.

Mr. Asif Amin Farooqui, as Stage Secretary, thanked Mrs. Jabeen (mother of a student Hasan Saeed Khan) on the behalf of Pakistan Association of the Deaf, for donating a UPS. Frequent power failure was causing proving as a hurdle in education process. This act of kindness by Mrs. Jabeen was highly appreciated by PAD’s committee as well as others.

Mr. Syed Amin Ahmed delivered the formal “vote of thanks”.

Inauguration ceremony was concluded by a question answer session. Mr. Zeshan had given the appropriate answers to the participants.