Charlie and Cheryl Mae: Finding Community

Published Tue, Oct 30, 18. Written by .

Many times it is common for parents to feel overwhelmed when they discover their child is deaf. Even more so when they find out both of their children are deaf. Nemer and Renante, parents of two deaf children, were overwhelmed and feeling like they had done something wrong to deserve two children with this disability. As young parents, they discovered that their son and daughter, Charlie and Cheryl Mae, were both deaf.

 

Unable to completely immerse their children into their community, Nemer and Renante kept their children close to home. Charlie and Cheryl Mae did not attend school and had very little interaction with others because of their lack of hearing. Also, their parents wanted to keep them protected from any bullying or ridicule.

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IDEA later discovered Charlie and Cheryl Mae when they were eleven and nine years old. IDEA makes a point to travel around the Philippines to find deaf children who need education and community. These trips IDEA staff complete annually help to reach areas that usually do not have any knowledge or access to IDEA or other opportunities for the deaf.

 

Charlie and Cheryl Mae were able to start preparatory classes together shortly after being brought to IDEA. They both excelled in school and participated in extracurricular activities with other deaf students. Their parents are so proud that their once excluded children are now graduates of an IDEA school with a community supporting them. They now both work at the Jagna Pension House & Garden Cafe, one of IDEA's businesses which were created to employ their graduates and help support the current children in school.  Charlie and Cheryl Mae have also been growing in their relationship with God and accepted Him into their lives.

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Charlie and Cheryl Mae’s story is one of many that IDEA has been blessed to be a part of. Because of our supporters and donors, Charlie, Cheryl Mae, and many other deaf children are able to be educated and immersed in a growing deaf community in the Philippines.