Their voices seemed to fade away and it was then that Teresita knew something was wrong. Soon after, she underwent a hearing test that confirmed her fears: she was going deaf, and the process was irreversible.

That was in 1974. Today, Teresita is Director of the Maryknoll Deaf Centrum in Baguio City, Philippines, and her courage and willpower are an inspiration to everyone around her.

After Teresita now in her 60s, had completed her post graduation (concentrating on English, Philosophy and Secondary Education), she began teaching pre-school, elementary and high school students in Baguio and the surrounding regions. During her pregnancy in 1971, her doctor prescribed medication, which Teresita took as directed. Her immediate sickness went away, but what she did not know was that her life had now been altered irrevocably.

It began with a barely perceptible ringing in her ears that would not go away. The sound was irritating, but tolerable, so Teresita ignored it as she went about the business of life. She gave birth to two more children and, in the excitement of her new role as a working mother paid little attention to the signs that all was not well with her health. Gradually, however, the ringing increased to a painful drumming sound that gave way to agonising waves of strong vibrations that assaulted her ears constantly. Teresita found it hard to hear what her little children or students said and decided to consult a doctor.

The doctor said she was losing her hearing at an alarming rate, caused by an overdose of the medication prescribed during her first pregnancy. To make matters worse, the original diagnosis of illness had also been wrong. "My inner ear nerves were affected," recalls Teresita. "And it was too late to take medication or undergo surgery. It was a shock. I was religious and the question I kept asking was, `Why me, Lord? I've not done anything wrong'."

She struggled to accept her diagnosis, even as her hearing steadily worsened. The fact that she was a mother and a teacher, dealing every day with young children and their needs, made matters worse. It was a nightmare, she says. "I never thought about what it would be like if people lost one of their five senses. I lost my hearing at a time when I needed it the most." Eventually, it was the unwavering love and support of her family and students that brought her back from the brink of despair. "They still needed me," Teresita says, "and that meant moving on, and moving on meant continuing to work."

So she resumed teaching, although her first few months as a hearing-impaired teacher were a daunting challenge... that she surmounted quite admirably. She became more creative in her teaching — for instance, asking her older students to write down their questions. Though her students knew she was hearing-impaired, they never questioned her ability as a teacher.

To compensate for her hearing loss, she tried a hearing aid, an experiment she later abandoned. "I found it quite artificial," she says. Instead, she settled for sign language and lip-reading. As her hearing continued to decline, her skills in sign language and lip-reading grew, and she realised how much better they were as interpersonal communication methods. In both sign language and lip-reading, the two people communicating must be face to face. "I paid attention like never before," she says. Her disability took on profound meaning. "We have forgotten to look people in the eye. How beautiful it is to see, and not just to hear!"

She also began to understand the many difficulties that hearing-impaired and other physically-challenged people face: people's ignorance and prejudice, social stereotypes and, most important, the lack of facilities and opportunities for the disabled. In Teresita's particular field of education, school curricula were not designed with the needs of hearing-impaired students in mind. When invited to conduct a workshop for hearing-impaired students in Baguio, she found her new purpose in life — to create facilities for the education and empowerment of hearing-impaired youth.

Armed with her teaching and personal experiences, she began teaching hearing-impaired children and young people in 1990 and eventually founded the Deaf Centrum in 1993. Originally a tutorial centre offering non-formal education, the Centrum is now accredited by the Department of Education and offers formal education courses. Guided by her vision of moulding young, hearing-impaired Filipinos to be self-reliant and fully functional in a hearing world, Teresita fights to make education — not just for the hearing-impaired, but also for hearing people — more inclusive and friendly.

"No dole-outs," she says firmly, explaining that these practices only increase the dependency of hearing-impaired people, and undermine their capacity for self-sufficiency. Her classroom is a testament to her beliefs. Taking a holistic approach to education, she teaches her students not just sign language, but also to be decent human beings by instilling values of respect for other people, their communities and the environment.

Today, Teresita is also a visual artist and dancer and also exhibits works of art. "The important thing is to share our lives with people, to be a part of society. I live according to what I believe. I am not the same as I was yesterday. I must be better every day."

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/life/2005/12/30/stories/2005123000170400.htm