Happy Monday!! I am so excited to share today’s nonprofit with you! My beautiful friend, Selina, started this organization out of reasons that are deeply personal. From the burden on her heart has come an amazing organization that has caught like wildfire and has helped families all over the United States. This is Selina’s story.
Selina:
90 to 95 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents who often don’t know sign language and struggle to communicate with their own child. My family was one of those statistics. My sister, Roxanne, was diagnosed as Deaf at the age of 2. Our mother and father, who are both Hearing, did not pursue American Sign Language. We developed our own “Home Sign Language” to communicate. As an adult, I (Selina) knew this was no longer acceptable. I took it upon myself to take ASL (American Sign Language) classes and dive into Deaf Culture. The relationship between my sister and I flourished. We no longer had a language barrier. Finally, we could joke, reminisce, and fully understand each other. Our desire is to unite families like ours in this same way.
Deaf Heartbeat aims to bridge the gap between the Hearing and the Deaf and to raise Deaf awareness.
We teach anyone who wants to learn American Sign Language. Our thought is, the more people that learn ASL, the easier the world will be for the Deaf. We began as a small class of about 4 people at our church and have grown to a nonprofit Ministry with an online presence of over 4,000. We offer free Facebook Live Classes weekly and song tutorials. The Deaf Heartbeat Team also enjoys supporting like-minded nonprofits and teaching at events. If you would like to know more please visit our website at www.deafheartbeat.com and the Deaf Heartbeat ASL Facebook page.
______________________________
Thank you, Selina, for your heart to help families all over the world communicate with their children. When I think of Roxanne growing up and not being able to communicate with her family, my heart hurts. Selina had such a burden on her heart for her sister and it has turned into an amazing ministry. In full transparency, before I met Selina, I did not think about deaf people very often. Selina’s story has pricked my heart and inspired me to help any way I can. I honestly feel that deaf people and culture have been overlooked, ignored for too long. Maybe not everywhere, but I know that where I grew up, there was not any focus on communicating with deaf people at all. Schools offered Spanish, French, and German, but no sign language course. Why? Whether or not it was the intention of schools and policymakers, it makes me feel like deaf people were not even considered when it comes to language courses. What kind of message is being sent to deaf people about their value whether intentional or not? However, sign language classes are now being offered in schools as a language credit, which is progress. Just think about it. When a deaf person has to go to the doctor, hospital, church, court, basically anywhere and has to try to communicate with people who likely do not know sign language, how can they receive the quality care or service they need? According to statistics, only 1% of people actually know how to sign. Just imagine how that affects the deaf community. This is why Deaf Heartbeat is so important. Selina is trying to raise awareness and teach people to sign so that more and more people will be able to communicate with the deaf. She offers free classes, hosts events to raise awareness, and has served as an interpreter. As Selina indicated, she has gone from teaching a small few to over 4,000 people. In order for her to keep growing, she needs your support. Please check out her website and see how you can help; donate if you are able. Thank you so much for getting behind this cause.
Deaf Heartbeat Website
