"My name is Ali. Can you help me find a job?," was the question posed by the bespectacled, somewhat insecure young deaf man who approached me after my last class at the free Training Center for the Deaf, which we run in Karachi, Pakistan.” …recounts Richard Geary, project manager of FESP in Karachi.

Ali continued in Sign Language, "I just arrived in Karachi from my village. I have 10 brothers and sisters, and need to help support my family." I was impressed, not only by Ali's determination and persistence, but also by his language skills.

I made Ali a deal. I'd help him to get a job if he would commit himself to come after work to the center to get further training. I sensed in Ali, as with a jewel in the rough, certain qualities which, if they could be developed, would help him to reach his full potential.

To make a long story short, Ali is now fully employed as a computer teacher at Deaf Reach Training Center. To our knowledge, he is perhaps one of the only deaf computer teachers in Karachi. Daily he teaches classes to over 50 deaf students who learn exceptionally well as they get their classes in Sign Language, their native "tongue." As one deaf boy put it, "I went to many computer schools but I could never learn much. I didn't understand the teachers. But Mr. Ali makes it so easy for me to understand!"

Read more of Ali's truly unique personal story Silence No Longer a Barrier

Deaf Reach is a specialized training program for deaf teenagers and young adults, which also assists its students in finding employment so that they can help support their families. Deaf Reach Training Center is happy to announce the expansion of their program, and the opening of a new training center in Lahore. As in Karachi, the center is operated on a non-profit basis.

Ali (standing), now IT teacher at Deaf Reach



Children practicing their newly-acquired
computer skills in the IT lab at the
Deaf Reach Training Center.