Deaf Today: Deaf students design cards for a living

August 30, 2004

Deaf students design cards for a living

From: Fiji Times, Fiji - Aug 30, 2004

A GROUP of deaf and mute students are out to make a living for themselves by producing handcrafted cards, which will be sold from selected outlets soon.

What started as an art class for the youths in Lautoka a few weeks ago, is today a budding business which will earn them a few dollars at the end of the week.

A Lautoka-based non-government organisation, Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises and Development (FRIEND), gathered the youths who had been looking for jobs for a while.

Co-ordinator of the programme Nileshni Shekhar taught participants how to make small paper roses, paint dried grass and sand and design and cut cards. Within a week, the group started producing cards of different designs from their imagination.

Salaseini Nakacia Nabure, 19 of Nasolo Village in Ba, has six siblings and she is the eldest. Her father is a casual worker and she was looking for a job for the last two years. She joined the card-making programme and now earns a few dollars to look after herself and help her family.