Volunteering from Deaf hearts: Deaf, We are One and Many.

"Ask not what your Deaf Community can do for you; ask what you can do for your Deaf Community."


Reading the request of Mishka Zena's about what one have done for the Deaf community, I was thinking, 'that's a splendid idea! To show how much we have done for the community, instead of pulling each other down." I had thought long and hard, and I did not want to sound I was bragging or to put the spotlight on each individual. What I would like to do is to show individuals, not just me, doing much for the community.


1) When the hurricane Katrina hit, many of us, I'm sure, had been wondering how the New Orleans Deaf community were doing and if they were all right. The Baton Rogue school for the deaf had promptly opened their rooms for families with and without children. Local interpreters of Texas and Louisiana fought to put out awareness of what the deaf community had gone through, especially with lack of communication. I still vividly remember when someone had sent out a false list of who had died- I contacted the correct contact working with Red Cross to find out and gave out the proper list of who had survived and where they had ended up at. Gallaudet had fought in convincing the Red Cross that the deaf community needed mental health help. The university finally got the permission to send mental health counselors, social workers and child psychologists who can sign. I alerted the Colorado Deaf community (and others who had forwarded the request list to other friends out of state) about donations of necessities to deaf survivors who had lost everything, such as dishes, books, TTYs, children clothes, children toys, sheets, kitchen needs, and so on, in which so many had donated, including from a school program with deaf students donating books, a NJ family sending a TTY, a CA individual sending a check, several interpreters with kitchen needs, a comic book store donating comics for children. And all those individuals I listed, had volunteered, and did it from their hearts and belief in the Deaf community.

2) Many of us have done volunteer advocates for deaf programs dealing with domestic violence. Several of us had known the risks of meeting survivors, knowing there was a chance of encountering the abuser or seeing things that we couldn't easily forget. We worked with survivors on developing self esteem and motivation to escape the chains of physical, verbal, sexual and/or emotional abuse. To protect the safety of deaf survivors and the volunteer advocates, one could not identify the deaf volunteers, but one cannot deny that the volunteers did all that with determination and perseverance with the belief that the Deaf women and children have the right to be safe as well as the hearing community.

3) Due to limited access and/or limited funds, much of the Deaf community had not gotten appropriate information to HIV/AIDS and STDS (sexually transmitted diseases). In past, there had been several programs working with the Deaf community- unfortunately either due to mistreatment of finances or the assumption that "others" can help out, programs had closed down. There are so few, several on both coasts and one or two in the Midwest- that's not enough, not even close. As an unpaid volunteer, I had attended trainings provided by the Technical Assistance and Training Program of Colorado department of public health along with a friend who too wanted to provide educational tools for the Deaf community. I had worked with clients living with HIV+. I had worked with groups discussing about safe sex and how to protect themselves, and that's not even close to what programs have done for the Deaf community. DeafHope, GLAD (with HIV Prevention and HIV Interpreting program), Chicago Foundation for Deaf and other programs had fought to keep their programs running. We all believe that the Deaf community have the right to information, and the right to decide how to handle their health, with full awareness.

4) For me, I have been doing a blog in goal of helping the Deaf community get information that may be of benefit. I know that I do not write much often as other bloggers. My education demands a lot of me at this time, however I try to make time to ensure that if there is a need for information, I will put it out.

5) And oh yeah, I am working on becoming a mental health counselor, to work with Deaf and hh individuals, families and groups, who can then create the tools they need to handle their own lives and develop confidence. Before returning to school, I had worked with deaf individuals at groups, in their goals of becoming independent, getting and keeping a job, raising children properly and safely, advocating for their rights to access and communication, and encouraging the public to respect the person's right to decision-making instead of taking over their lives. I speak for myself- I don't believe in leading one by the hand, doing things myself. I believe that individuals can be successful by themselves once they learn how to help themselves and the families/friends around them.


I could go on and on, but I bet that the folks can speak up for themselves on what they have done and are still doing for the Deaf community. What about you? I want to end this with:


"Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." - Barack Obama

Looks like a busy week.

Will be off to a two-day HIV training which is Client-Centered 1:1 Interventions starting tomorrow and finishing Wednesday. 9am to 5pm, which would be very tough on my leg. If I sit too long, my leg stiffens up. (Slow recovery from surgery and damage from hit-and-run.) I had taken that training before last year or was that two years ago? I had lost track, but they messed up the certificat, putting down Jules Wolfers instead of my real name! :p They hadn't renewed the certificate so I had to take it again. That's all right since it'd be a nice refresher class for me! I will also take other six classes..can we say BUSY? The classes are Mental Health & HIV Prevention, Effective Referrals, STDS for Non-Clinicians, Cultural Competence Level 1, 2 and 3. And no, I'm not being paid to attend. It's volunteering and I figure taking those trainings will look excellent on my resume especially certificates I can include in the resume. I gotta do all this because it's my dream to be a mental health counselor/case manager for deaf clients with HIV in the future.

Someone asked me WHY I want to work with deaf clients with HIV. "What's wrong with working with mental ill clients, mental retarded clients or clients that may have problems like addictions, domestic violence or having high-risk activities?" Who says I don't want to work with those clients? I didn't say that. I discovered that there is too few counselors who can sign out there in the United States. It's harder to find counselors who may have experiences in this or that.. There are addiction counselors, there are domestic violence counselors, there are clinical psychologists, you get the idea. It is high likely that when one NEEDS help in a certain area of mental health, you won't find a counselor who can sign. For example, if one needs to go to a 12-step AA group, there is a chance there would be no counselor who could sign. At most, there'd be an interpreter (that is if the organization that'd call up one.) So... the bottom line is..counselors who can sign will need to be generalists. What is that? Let me read from the dictionary:

Generalist: : one whose skills, interests, or habits are varied or unspecialized.

It means that in case of mental health, the counselor would need to have basic knowledge of addiction, high risk adolescence, mental disorders, autism, domestic violence, family violence, PTSD, crisis intervention, etc, etc. I had already taken PTSD and Crisis intervention classes. I worked for an organization that focuses on domestic violence. I also worked for a non-profit organization that worked with deaf clients with mental retardation and other disabilities, as well as an organization working with deaf clients with mental disorders. In March, I will take a two-day workshop on addictions. More knowledge the counselor can collect in her repertory, the more resourceful she can be for the clients and herself.

However, HIV/AIDS have been my passion for a long time as I could remember. Rene (name changed to protect his family) took me into the world of HIV/AIDS. I remember as if it happened yesterday, Rene came to me in 1991. He said that he was afraid to go to the doctor to ask for a HIV test. I asked him why he would even think about that. He said a guy told him that he was HIV positive and that since Rene had sex with him, he should go take a test. I agreed to go with him to a doctor for a blood test. I remember two weeks later or so, I remember how our hearts pounded that I could even feel vibrations in my teeth. The doctor was even considerate of getting an interpreter that day. He told him that the test was positive for HIV but encouraged him to come back in six months. We both were stunned. He asked the doctor more about HIV but the interpreter used a lot of medical terms that went over his and my heads. After the appointment, he asked me more about HIV and I have to tell you, readers, I had NO idea but that HIV kills. It was a bogeyman to me. In a few days, we went to the library to look up and there were a lot of medical terms that I had to read forth and back (looking up dictionary, reading book, then back to dictionary). Due to Rene's 4th grade reading level, he couldn't "get it." So I would read and then translate into ASL for him. My heart was broken for him over much that I am even surprised that it's still beating after all this breaking for months. With him, I learned about what HIV/AIDS means, what it does and doesn't, how it affects the immune system and that it wasn't HIV that'd kill. It's complications that comes to a weakned immune system, hence AIDS with complications.
He had died 4 years ago but bless his heart, he refused to let HIV control his life as possible. He went hiking in the Rocky Mountains and surfing in Hawaii all the time when he felt good. I saw how it was very tough for him, not from the deaf community but from the medical community. It was tough to find an interpreter who knows medical and sexual terms and not spell them out! Can you imagine one going "A-N-A-L-S-E-X" instead of signing it??!! Many times he would show up at the doctor's office to find that there would be no intepreter. Often he would write forth and back and then bring notes to me to read and help interpret words/terms he didn't understand. I decided to do more research on HIV/AIDS myself and I find it an amazing 'machine.' It is a destructive program if you will. There are viruses and bacteria out there that would keep their host alive while eating them, yet this HIV virus killing its own host. This virus has no judgement on who gets it. Women, men, kids, adolescenes, hearing, deaf, catholics, jews, pagans, African-american, hispanic, white, it has no racism, no sexism, no audism, nothing against 'em...but that it is all one blood and immune system to that "destructive program." You can say it is akin to a computer virus, when you think about it.

So, that is one of reasons why HIV/AIDS is one of my passions. 'Boyo,' I won't forget you and your favorite saying, "I ain't beat until I am ready!"

Limited Deaf resources on HIV/AIDS and Poll

I have been thinking about this for a few days... I am not sure if there have been a poll out there to ask THIS question "Do you think HIV/AIDS exist in the deaf community?" among the deaf community in the United States.

A lot of agencies had services set up for the deaf about HIV prevention then died out in a few years because of low turnout and insufficent numbers of clients or funds. (That's what I have been told by some folks who were there.) So far there is GLADD (Los Angeles) Deaf AIDS Project (in Family Services Foundation- Baltimore), Gay men's health Crisis (New York), AIDS Initiative for Deaf Services Task Force (which is located at AIDS Project Hartford, in Conn) and AIDS Foundation of Chicago (Advocate Metro OutReach Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program in Chicago.) If there are more organizations that provide services (outreach, prevention, one-to-one counseling, support groups, workshops applying to HIV/AIDS and STDS), I'm all "ears!" I am sure there are readers out there that are curious too if there are services where they can go in for testing and counseling (IF confidentiality can be managed.)

Now, I would like to see if folks can answer this poll that I created in mind for the deaf readers and perhaps hearing folks if they work with deaf clients. I would like to get an IDEA at least where one can start! Like that main female character in "Dogma" said, "I have an idea, not a belief of what one can do."

Do HIV AIDS exist in the Deaf community?
	Yes!!!
	What is HIV AID??
	No.
	La la la, I'm not listening!
pollcode.com free polls