As we focus on the ministry of New Hope Initiative we primarily report on the progress at our individual projects. These reports general give updates on the progress of our works as a whole. However it is extremely important to remember that it is individual people with names, faces, and personal needs that are ultimately the ones benefited by our work. We haven't reported recently on our special needs orphanage in India and the progress for that center, as a whole, is very encouraging but I want to focus today on one very encouraging story.
Thirteen your old Malik came to our special needs orphanage outside of Hyderabad India one year ago. He was brought by his frantic mother who could not afford to raise him nor did she have any ability to cope with his hearing disability. Malik's father had abandoned the entire family because in his misguided religious belief he considered Malik's hearing loss to be a curse on his family from the gods. Malik had never had anyone work with him to help him overcome his challenges. He could not speak, he could not do sign language, he had little formal education, and only communicated with self taught rudimentary gestures.
Our staff at the orphanage instantly recognized the extraordinary ability that this young man possessed and began to work with his academic and social skills. The Indian government has a correspondence course for hearing impaired children and Malik immediately began to fly through the regiments. He finished entire grades in the matter of weeks and immediately proved through technology to be an academically gifted young man.
In September, New Hope Initiative traveled to India along with a team from Sagemont Church in Houston TX. Our team was immediately impressed by the amazing personality and obvious ability of this now 14 year old young man. One of our team members had read about the large number of children in India who were categorized as non hearing that actually had never been properly tested, so immediately we began to make plans to take Malik to a hearing center. He was excited and a bit nervous to travel into the big city of Hyderabad to be properly tested at a center. Our team was amazed to learn after a few short tests that Malik had some hearing in BOTH ears and would greatly benefit from hearing devices. Can you imagine a young man living his entire life robbed of the joy of sound because he never had access to the few hundred dollars it would take to have his hearing tested and corrected?
The truth is that even though our team was able to pool their funds and easily pay for this procedure, it was such a significant amount of money in Malik's world, that it would have forever relegated Malik to a soundless world if it had not been for New Hope Initiative and our supporters.
Malik's journey will still be a challenge. He has no experience with sound or any ability to process the noises he is now hearing for the first time after 14 years of life. However we are very confident in his ability and in his passion to overcome his challenges and we believe that Malik's journey to a productive fulfilling life is just beginning. Behind every school, clinic, orphanage, or other project that NHI operates please remember there are scores of Maliks whose lives are being impacted and futures dramatically altered because you care.