Elementary School

 

   

Deaf Village          Ear Examination

Dr. Rajendra G Desai, shown addressing our club
in 2000. His Rotary Club, Newport
Beach Balboa Club,  started PROJECT DEAF
INDIA, which is a project to
improve the education of the deaf and those hard of
hearing by introducing the Total Communication System
for Deaf Education in India.
The project is a collaboration between
Rotary Newport-Balboa District 5320 and
Rotary Mysore District 3180.
The project has received funding from the
Newport Balboa Rotary Club of US$10,000
($8500 plus $1500 from District 5320) and the Mysore
Club US$5,660. The US$15,660 was then matched by
R.I. as a matching Grant for a total of US$31,320.

Our club donates each year to this project.
Dr Pushpa Chandwani, PP Dr Richard Frieder, PPGeorge Cooper
and PP Victoria Avery have given helping hands on the project, including
Victoria volunteered as an MC at Deaf India fundraiser. George
volunteered as webmaster, initially. Richard does the follow up including
budget requests.
Dr Desai conceived "PROJECT DEAF INDIA." There was an epidemic of German Measles in the U.S.A. in 1964 and Dr. Desai's daughter was born deaf. Sixty four thousand children were also born deaf as a result of the epidemic. Most of these were due to pregnant women exposed to the virus in the first trimester of pregnancy. Today Dr. Desai's daughter is married, a mother, a professional woman and holds a Master's degree from Gallaudet University, the only university in the world that imparts bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees to deaf students. Needless to say, her's is a success story. Dr. Desai is driven by the desire to provide the deaf and hard of hearing children in India with the same opportunity and access to
education and employment that his daughter had.

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