Twin Deaf Girls In Uganda Find Hope Because Of A Simple Step Of Action

Heather King (no relation to our President JD King) was on a trip to Uganda.  She met two Deaf girls that she fell in love with.  These beautiful deaf girls needed a language, an education, and to learn about the hope of Jesus.  Heather took a simple step of action and contacted Deaf Child Hope to see if we could help.  Read on to learn what happened!

I had been working as a Spanish Teacher for five years when I decided to leave my job to do something called the World Race (www.heatherking.theworldrace.org). It felt like one of the riskiest, craziest decisions of my life, and it was one that I knew would lead to some big things. I hoped it would at least.

Sometimes those “big things” that you hope for in life come in different shaped packages than you imagined. For me, it was two 6 year-olds I met in Uganda on month 10 of the Race.

When I first met Feciah and Felisitah, they were living with their mom and four other siblings at a church. Feciah seemed shy and a little uncertain and Felistiah was all smiles. She would jump up and down and squeal in excitement every time I showed up at church. I could tell they had some ringworm on their bare scalps, and they seemed like they could use a few more calories in their diet. Their mother told us that the 6 year-old twin girls were born deaf and that their father had rejected them because of their disability.

I found out that the girls had never attended school. Their mother could afford the school fees for a couple of the siblings, but the twins needed a specialized education at a deaf school that would be far out of their financial capacity. I started trying to imagine these girls growing up with no language and no possible way to communicate other than with simple gestures. I couldn’t fathom what it would be like to grow up without words and how frustrating and debilitating it would be for the girls to exist in a world that they couldn’t participate in.

After one month in Uganda, I knew I would be moving on to another country (on the World Race, we visit 11 countries in 11 months). I also knew that I would eventually be coming home to the U.S. and ingrafting back into life here. Just like I did in so many other places, I knew that it would be possible for me to say goodbye to these girls and let them become a faded memory in my mind…a blip in my journey and a picture I could look back on every now and then.

Through some encouragement from back home, I realized that I didn’t have to let that be the case. I could try to help these girls. Instead of just letting them become a memory, I could take some kind of action to get them on a path that could offer them more in life. Even if just the gift to speak through their hands or understand what someone was saying to them or even dream up something for their own lives.

I wanted to help them somehow, but I knew it would be tough to do that from out of the country. I left Uganda and here is the crazy part. All I did at that point, the only real effort I put in, was to type something into Google, send an email and wait to see what would happen. I had stumbled upon Deaf Child Hope through that internet search and I wrote an email about the girls in the off chance that someone would respond and want to help.

When I got a response to my email, I was shocked but so excited. I couldn’t believe that taking that one simple step of connecting these girls to Deaf Child Hope could literally be a game changer for their future. It turns out, after some further networking and emails, that these two girls have been accepted into a deaf school and they will start next term. I can’t believe how much will change for them in just a short time, and I hope and pray that this opportunity will be one that leads them on a journey that will change their lives.

I couldn’t believe that taking that one simple step of connecting these girls to Deaf Child Hope could literally be a game changer for their future.

I’m not sure when I will be in Uganda again. I hope I get to see these sweet girls again in the future, but I know that in the meantime I took a step that may completely alter the way Feciah and Felisitah experience life. On my part it doesn’t feel like a step that took that much effort, it was just a matter of following through and continuing to look for an answer when there wasn’t an obvious one. I feel like my role was just a link in a chain that will continue on far into the future.

I hope this story is an encouragement to follow your gut and go after the ones who need someone fighting for them. It may just be that you are in the right place at the right time, or that you are in a position to give something that someone else can’t. There is purpose to the way our lives are connected and the difference that we make today has the potential to ripple into eternity. Keep listening for the stirring to take action, even if it feels like something small or something hopeless. You never know what God may have up his sleeve!

Heather