South African corporate is empowering the Deaf community by unleashing their diverse talents and skills.
The Deaf community of South Africa, is arguably one of the most marginalised groups living within our country.
The reason for this is two-fold: Firstly, when compared to other physical disabilities, Deafness is often not visible, and secondly the Deaf cannot communicate freely within the hearing world, they are often regarded as unfit for employment and socially isolated as a result.
eDeaf, a Deaf-owned BBBEE Level 2 company was established in 2007 as a means of providing training and employment services to both employers and Deaf employees. Through qualified facilitator lead training, the Deaf teach the Deaf. eDeaf now boasts over 50 employees, the majority of which are Deaf and also assist with employment of South Africa’s Deaf community.
One of their largest clients, and supporters of the Deaf community in South Africa is the Edcon group. Edcon currently employ over 20 staff nationally and are committed to take-on and empower even more.
Michael Naidoo is one of those South Africans and has been working for the group for the last 32 years.
“My first impression was that this would be a challenge for us, it would be difficult for us to interact with someone who is deaf. After getting to work with him, and noticing that he understood because the nature of our job is very visual, it is very practical.” – Tasleem Khan, Operations Manager Edcon Group
Michael fits right in at the company and anyone that sees the interaction between himself and his team, would not even know that he is hearing impaired.
They work side by side and have learnt how to communicate with each other through gestures, lip-reading, and even some sign language.
“It was very easy for Michael to understand and grasp what he needed to do and it easy for us to work together, and to communicate with each other even though he is deaf.”
Michael has influenced the Edcon management that Deaf South Africans can do the job just the same, if not better, than anyone else and thus the group have made a commitment to employ and empower even more South Africans from the Deaf community.
“One of the things we learned is that he wanted us to treat him the same as everyone else.”
To find out more about how you and your company can be involved with eDeaf visit our website www.edeaf.co.za or call 011 837 7432. For any recruitment related queries kindly e-mail Jesse Kotze (COO) at jessek@edeaf.co.za, for any learnership related queries kindly e-mail Stuart Loftus (Strategic Accounts Manager) at stuart@edeaf.co.za.
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