Angelique and Hortence

It was when her daughter reached six-months-old that Angelique first realised something was wrong.  Her baby, Hortence, didn’t respond to noise and didn’t babble like the other infants her age.  Two months later, she was certain that her daughter was deaf.

In the region of Rwanda where Angelique lives, there is very little help for parents who have deaf children.  Apart from a few basic gestures, Angelique and her little girl had no means of communicating and Hortense seemed desperately lonely and trapped within herself.

Added to the heartache of watching Hortence struggle through childhood, Angelique had to cope with the stigma surrounding her daughter’s disability.  Her neighbours would call her child ‘dumb’ and Angelique felt increasingly isolated from her own community.

Many mothers in this region would have succumbed to the pressure and given up on their disabled child – something that is all too common where Angelique lives.  But all she wanted was to protect her girl and give her a good start in life.

Luckily a project, funded through Chance for Childhood, heard about Angelique and Hortence  and told them about a special workshop that they could attend.  By going along, this mother and daughter have learnt ways to communicate with each other properly for the very first time.