Many persons with hearing impairments in Ghana have had their dreams of securing meaningful employment shattered due to systemic barriers and limited access to tailored opportunities.
This exclusion from sustainable livelihoods often places additional burdens on their families.
To address this gap, the social organization Untamed Voices has stepped in to empower learners at the Mampong Senior High Technical School for the Deaf with the training and skills needed to thrive.
Employers often overlook persons with disabilities due to perceived low expectations of their abilities and the lack of social support structures and specialized training.
Through its Deaf and Dynamic Initiative, Untamed Voices engaged students at the Mampong School for the Deaf in May 2025, equipping them with digital, creative, and practical skills to prepare them for meaningful employment.
Director of Untamed Voices, Vincent Yovo, said the initiative was designed to prepare the hearing-impaired for self-employment, recognizing the social and economic setbacks.
“The idea of this initiative is to equip the deaf learner with enough skills for self-employment and a source of livelihood. With the training we have offered them, I believe they stand a chance to learn 21st-century relevant skills that are not offered in school but are very necessary in the life of the outside world, in the job market and industries,” he said.
The Mampong School for the Deaf in the Akuapem North Municipality in the Eastern Region nurtures over 500 young people to overcome social and academic challenges.
For young people living with disabilities, life becomes extremely difficult to handle alone.
Senior Housemaster Stanley Semanhyia Kwesi explained that the program is a timely complement to the school’s mission.
“It is not easy to take care of students who are deaf, but we are committed to making them successful in society. This initiative strengthens their academic knowledge and prepares them for life beyond school,” he said.
“Mr. Semanhyia, however, highlighted the ongoing challenges affecting teaching and learning at the school, including inadequate infrastructure, limited learning resources, and logistical constraints.”
He appealed to the government and benevolent entities for technological resources to ease visual learning and to centralize school operations for better supervision and safety.
“This group is in the premier technical secondary school in the country, and we need logistics and educational materials, including infrastructure. We have two campuses, and we have to commute between the two campuses because of the lack of infrastructure and logistics.
“They don’t learn by visual means; they learn specially, so we need Technological tools to make the studies easy. It would be helpful to centralize operations with the provision of resources here at the south so supervision can be ensured. Commuting through the Accra highway to the northern campus is a risk to their lives,” he added.
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