Deaf and dumb school in Tirupathi

After my visit to Sri Kalahasti Pavan was also back in Tirupati and we visited the "Deaf and Dumb School" in Tirupati.
It is, like alot of things in Tirupati (as I have said before I think) financed and administrated by the TTD (the temple guys). So this is one of the programs they are supporting: Welfare for the handicapped people.

First we went to the "Business-/ job-"school. Here many young people with handicaps (alot of deaf ones aswell) do 2-3 years of studying and working, untill they start their apprenticeships in the free market. They are able to learn 4 industrial jobs in this institution:
Tailoring (here most or all girls are put in, boys can also apply)
Fitting and general handiwork
Welding
Light machinery (I think)

The two men, who showed me around were very proud to have a foreigner visit and were willing to show me everything. They even disturbed the meal of the group of students, who were eating. They weren't handicapped, so the canteen serves many institutions.
The work places seemed safe, they were just simple workbenches or the appropriate machinery, though probably outdated by european standards.
The Co-Principal (I think) told me most teachers try to learn sign-language (in my opinion, the kids really depended on it!) and otherwise used alot of pictures, other visual aids and of course showed the kids by example. Sadly there wasn't any teaching going on (the boys were all running after me and I didn't see any girls), just the tailoring teacher was there, but spoke very little english, or didn't want to.

According to the 2 men, who had showed me around, the "Deaf and Dumb School", so where the younger kids are, is next door. So thats where we headed next. But first I toke a picture with some of the boys, who were welders. I had looked at a little indian sign language before, so I was able to talk very little. But they even used a different alphabet than I saw online, so it was kind of difficult... But they were fascinated and very eager to see a white person talk like them (I think one of them said^^')

Next door we headed to the head-teachers office to say hello. Thankfully Pavan was at my side so he was able to talk with all the guards and tell them who I am and what I wanted. The head teacher and her right hand started showing me around the school and explained some things to me. One was, that in India there isn't THE "indian sign language", rather each state/ town/ school has its (more or less) own, I think it is also dependent on the language the state itself talks (some states have a specific official language, Andhra Pradesh has Telugu, Tamil Nadu has Tamil). Because India has alot of official languages it might differ and be even more diverse than the german "dialects".
The children and teachers were all suprised to see me and were usually in the middle of a lesson. Only one went on with her lesson and then told me what she was teaching. All others stopped teaching, looked and let the co-principal talk. He started asking the children, where they think I come from. All the children guessed I was from the USA. So we corrected them, that I am from Germany. Though I'm not too sure what the sign for Germany is... I of course used the german sign, so the teacher adopted it, but I saw a few kids doing a different sign first. But they quickly used the one the teacher showed.

At the end I knew the signs for the USA, telgugu (their language) and maths. In the early classes they have small devices on the desks, that help the children hear themselves and the other children (if they have hearing aids). Otherwise it isn't used. And since none of the children from the younger classes wore any hearing aids none of them were using it :D
In the entire school I only noticed 2 children using hearing aids (which also seemed very old ones, where you plug it in the ear, like headphones which are attached to the actual machine (probably the size of a walkman)). In a few classes at the beginning the teacher asked, if they were wearing them - the teachers always said no...
They told me, that in the higher classes (highschool etc.) they mostly just use telugu and no more sign language, so the kids are prepared for the later life. But the children seemed to react more to sign language, but then again I just saw about 5 minutes of their class... And the one teacher we visited also used a little sign language ;)

A nice experience, maybe I will be able to visit another school later in India. They told me, that there is a big school in Hydarabad, maybe I'll head there later on! It's supposed to be the only public school for deaf children to learn a job (so more for teenagers/ grown ups).
We'll see...

This is the school, where the older children go, to learn for the jobs, I didn't see any physically challenged)

Here I am surrounded by the deaf students from the school, not all were welders I think (they were wearing different uniforms), but the teacher told me they were 

The Entrance to the "Deaf and Dumb School"

The co-principal, me and the principal