Meet Simon ...

Malaria and the Senses

This blog is categorised as "Curiosity in a field I know nothing about"

As my regular readers will know, we have a deaf child at the Twiga Centre, Simon, who is around 8 years old. As a baby of about 5 months, he contracted malaria and as a result [?] became deaf. Consequently, he has never learned to talk.

While I am wasting away in the UK, I am looking for ways that we may be able to help Simon; top of the list is to see if he responds to hearing aids, and I have received several from well-wishers.

But, my curiosity is asking me questions that I cannot answer. Why does malaria affect hearing (or sight, come to that)? Does it attack the mechanical bits in the ear itself, does it damage the nerves between the ear and the brain, or dies it damage the brain itself? Or, is there no one cause of deafness after malaria?

Having no knowledge of medical matters, tropical diseases and their effects, or the workings of the brain, I set about trying to work this out logically.

I only know of two people who have had adverse effects to their senses after contracting malaria, Simon, who has lost his hearing, and a Twitter friend, whose sight was severely affected after contracting the disease.

As far as I know, sight and hearing are not connected, so it would seem logical that it is a part of the brain that is affected by the illness rather than the primary organs themselves.

If this is the case, will a hearing aid help Simon? Is there any treatment, however intrusive, that could restore his hearing? I need to know.

So, I put out a plea to the doctors and hearing specialists who read blogs, who Tweet, or who stumble over this blog by other means Please can you satisfy my curiosity and possibly help this boy to regain some form of hearing, and eventually the ability to talk.

The Sound Of Silence

Simon is about eight years old. He is a stocky, healthy-looking child with an open face and ready smile, but he is deaf. I don’t know quite how deaf he is. If I clap my hands loudly enough, he will sometimes hear it (or sense the air pressure?), and if I make a loud, high-pitched sound with a reed, he will hear that. In fact, he gets quite excited when he hears it, which leads me to believe that he doesn’t hear much else.

When Simon was a baby, about five months old, he contracted malaria. As far as I know, he was taken to hospital and treated, but then lost his hearing. I don’t know if this loss was as a result of the malaria, the treatment or coincidence – I am not a doctor.

So, Simon is deaf. As he lost his hearing at such an early age, he has never learned to talk. He makes sounds, but I don’t know if he can hear them. He knows that when he makes a sound, people will look at him and he can then sign to them, or use facial expressions to convey something.

As is common in Africa, Simon appears to be left to his own devices by his family. Children with “disabilities” are not useful. In fact, some can be considered a burden on the family, something that depletes already scarce resources such as food. I am not saying that Simon is treated as a burden, but he is often seen wandering around when other children are at school.

We believe that Simon is bright. He shows an aptitude for photography. For a child of his age, he takes well-framed, in-focus photos. He is fascinated with photography and understands how to use the different functions of the camera when shown.

We would love to help Simon, but we do not have medical people on our staff, and we don’t have the financial resources to have his hearing (or lack of) tested.

• Would Simon benefit from a hearing aid? 
• Is his condition reversible? 
• If I take an old, discarded hearing aid to Kenya, will it do any good? 

We don’t know. I don’t suppose any doctor would like to hazard a guess without examining the child, but that is what I want you to do, hazard a guess as to why Simon is deaf and whether there is anything that can be done for him.

It is a shame; Kisii has an excellent school for the deaf, run by the deaf. But we cannot afford to send Simon there, and his family certainly can’t, so we will try to glean some authoritative guesses from the medical profession and work from there.

Sign Language

On my last trip to Kenya in May of this year, I came across a few deaf people. Not surprising really as the first school for the deaf run by the deaf is situated in Kisii.

On my last day in Kisii, I met a deaf child, Simon, who was 8 years old. He was accompanied by a friend, Brian, who signed for Simon. Both children seemed proficient in sign language, as is my co-director, Vincent.

At the time, I was actually in the process of packing to leave Kisii so I did not get to know more of the circumstances of Simon and Brian. A lot of thoughts were running through my mind. Were they street children? They were certainly very grubby, even by the standards of rural Kenyan children. Did either or both of them go to school? Who looked after them? Did they have families? Etc.

When I returned to the UK, I asked Vincent to find out a little more, which was not difficult as Simon visited Vincent regularly, asking for money.

Anyway, it turns out that Simon does not go to school, despite the fact that there is a good school for the deaf in Kisii. He stays at home with his mother. Why?

Brian does go to school and also lives with his mother.

Neither child mentioned anything about fathers. Are they half-orphans?

So, as well as trying to learn a few words of Swahili and maybe a couple of words of Ekegusii (the local language of the Kisii area), I now want to learn sign language. And this poses another problem.

I cannot just go to the local college in England to learn it. In Kenya, they use Kenyan Sign Language - naturally. There are schools for the deaf that use British Sign Language or even American Sign Language, but KSL is the offocial language in Kenya.

I have searched the Internet and found a couple of useful sites that give a few words in KSL, but nowhere can I find a site that goes into any depth. So I guess that Vincent is going to have to teach me. I am sure it will come in useful while I am in Kenya.

Review of My Time in Kisii

This is not a long review, just memories of little incidents as they come to me.

This first relates not just to my latest visit, but I will relate the last occasion that I found this funny.

Now, I am sure that many of you have seen this simple finger trick:

I don't know when or where I first picked it up, but I seem to have been able to do it forever.

Anyway, when confronted with a gaggle of rural Kenyan kids, this is what I show them, particularly one little boy, Simon, who is deaf, and his friend and signer, Brian. Simon is the one with his finger in his mouth.

Both kids were amazed and tried for a long time to do this and eventually, with a little help, they succeeded.

The sounds of pleasure that Simon made when he succeeded were special. He had a grin on his face as he "talked" to Brian and Vincent, who can also sign.

Maybe I should learn to sign as well. I am sure that Simon isn't the only deaf kid who will cross my path in Kenya.

But is signing in Kenya the same as over here in the UK? I don't know. Can anyone tell me, please?

UPDATE: There is a specific language in Kenya, KSL or Kenyan Sign Language. This language is to become an official language in Kenya, if it hasn't already. Other European and US sign languages are used in a few schools in Kenya, but KSL is the norm.

There is a school for the deaf, staffed by deaf people in Kisii. It is the only one of its kind in Kenya a far as I can make out. Did Simon go there? I doubt it. He and his friend Brian were two of the scruffiest, grubbiest kids I have seen in Kenya.