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DeafKidz International – A match of legends

DeafKidz International have teamed up with Worthing FC and Manchester United to bring an exciting, not to be missed, football match.

2023 marks 10 years of DeafKidz International. To kick off the celebrations and this amazing milestone, Worthing FC are hosting a match of legends.

On Sunday 26th March 2023, Manchester United legends and Worthing FC Legends will go head-to-head in this one-off football game. Hosted by Worthing FC at the Crucial Environmental Stadium. Tickets are on sale now. All proceeds go to DeafKidz International. Follow the link to purchase your tickets today.

General Entry Tickets

VIP tickets

A limited number of VIP tickets are available for £100. This VIP Package includes the following:

• Exclusive pre match welcome drink & canapés with Man Utd Legends in attendance
• Post match meet and greet with both sets of legends
• Q&A session with Man Utd legends
• Auction for some exclusive Man Utd items
• Opportunity for Photos/Autographs
• Buffet Food

All VIP activities will take place at Worthing Pavilion Bowls Club, next to Worthing FC and the money raised will go to DeafKidz International.

We are extremely excited about this event, it’ll be a great day out for all the family as well as raising money for a fantastic Over the coming weeks, keep an eye out on our social media for the latest announcements on players and further details about the event.

All players listed are available and have agreed to play at the time of posting. Any changes to the squad and updates will be made prior to the event (dependent on changes to circumstances such as injury outside of our control) For any other event related information please contact info@worthingfc.com.

About DeafKidz International

DeafKidz International has been changing the lives of deaf children and young people around the world for the last 10 years. 2023 marks our tenth anniversary and we want to celebrate in style, increasing awareness of the work we do and continuing to campaign for the protection and safeguarding of deaf children.

We fight for the protection, health, wellbeing and access to education for deaf children around the globe. Deaf children deserve to live safely and without fear of abuse and exploitation. Yet a deaf child is three times more likely to be abused than a hearing child. Our work is crucial. Holding events like this football match helps spread awareness and raise crucial funds.

Sport connects people across the world, and we work with partners worldwide to improve deaf equality and inclusion. This charity match between Manchester United legends and Worthing FC legends is an event not to be missed.

Merry Christmas from DeafKidz International!

Video transcript:

Good morning everyone, first of all I’d like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas!

I’d like to take a moment this morning to recognise the incredible work of the team at DeafKidz International. They’ve done some truly fantastic stuff in 2022 to empower deaf children and young adults across the world, and I just wanted to highlight a few of these today.

DeafKidz have continued our mission to promote the protection, health, wellbeing and access to education needs of deaf children, young people and adults worldwide. We’ve achieved this through our global projects, including increasing access to ear and hearing care services in hospital and clinics in Malawi, continuing our Signing Safe Futures project in Jamaica, and launching our December Dip fundraiser here in the UK!

DeafKidz International continues to strive for a world where deaf children are safe from abuse, respected, and able to achieve their full potential. We are dedicated to providing deaf children with the tools and resources they need to lead meaningful and successful lives and we’ll continue with this mission in 2023. Thank you all for your continued support.

Steve Crump OBE, Founder

Launch of DeafKidz Defenders

We are thrilled to have launched DeafKidz Defenders: an early intervention, digital resource empowering deaf children to stay safe online.

Over the past 2 years, thanks to funding from The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children Safe Online programme we have been developing DeafKidz Defenders, an early intervention, interactive, accessible digital platform to help young deaf children stay safe from online abuse and exploitation.

DeafKidz Defenders Dissemination Event

On 23rd November 2022 we were thrilled to reveal key findings from our pilot evaluation to key stakeholders and funders at our dissemination event in London.

A huge thank you to everyone who attended our event. It was an incredible afternoon of insightful presentations, sharing the positive findings of our pilot evaluation in South Africa & Pakistan and important discussions surrounding this innovative educational resource. Guest speakers at our event included our Global Ambassador, Colin Allen AM, Dr Howard Lake, Executive Director of the Global Partnership to End Violence, Jess Lishak from We Protect Global Alliance, Elizabeth Thomas, Debra Clelland, Thrive South Africa & Sarah Shaikh, Deaf Reach Pakistan. Thank you also to Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP for generously hosting the event in their London offices.

Please read our Summary Evaluation report, watch the event recording or read more about DeafKidz Defenders below, including videos from the schools in Pakistan and South Africa where we piloted this resource.

Sign up to the DeafKidz December Dip!

Dive straight in this December​ and raise vital funds for DeafKidz International

Cold water swimming is brrrrr-illiantly brrrrr-acing! Dive in for an invigorating ​dip at a time and place of your choosing this December and make a huge difference to the lives of deaf children.​

Do it anywhere – sea, lake or lido – wherever works for you, just get in the water at least once in December and invite your family and friends to sponsor you.

​Improve your cognitive function, boost your immune system and reduce stress – ​all whilst helping us support deaf children around the world.​

​Of course, if you want to do more, complete as many cold water swims as you like, alone or as part of a group, and share your swims on the December Dip website for other December Dippers to celebrate. ​

​There’s no fee to register. We ask for a minimum fundraising target of £250 per person. This would make a huge difference to our small charity.

Get your winter health kick. Sign up to the DeafKidz December Dip.​

Sign up now!

Responding to the Protection Needs of Deaf Children in Ukraine

In March 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, DeafKidz International looked to determine how best it could use its child protection expertise to ensure deaf children and their families were supported, during the most dangerous conflict to be prosecuted in Europe since the Second World War. We immediately reached out to the Ukrainian Deaf Association, during the initial invasion phase, to offer our support. It became quickly apparent that supporting the Ukrainian Deaf Association was to become a very crowded and confused space, compounded by contradictory social media information that only added to the increasing sense of alarm. The situation was further challenged by a global deaf membership organisation appointing itself as the lead co-ordinating agency, despite having no experience of humanitarian response. All of this whilst dynamic and agile grass roots organisations such as Off the Grid Missions and DeafBridge worked in-country to respond practically to the needs of deaf children and their families dislocated by the conflict.

Consequently, we stepped back from the immediate response and looked for a more tangible and sustainable way to respond to the protection needs of children affected by the nightmare of the war. After discussions with a number of our key partners including War Child UK, Save the Children UK and Hope & Homes for Children, DeafKidz International launched an emergency appeal to specifically support the safe evacuation, alternative family-based care, and placement of the estimated 100,000 children within the orphanage care system in Ukraine, 50% of whom are known to have some form of disability, including deafness.

The appeal raised £55,000 from donated funds and contracts awarded in response to the scheme of works proposed. Thank you to everyone who generously supported our appeal. We are especially grateful to nWise and the Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) who made signature donations to the appeal. Your support enabled consultants from DeafKidz International to be deployed to Romania and Moldova to review the operations of one of our key partners. This ensured that their work responding to the needs of refugee families, unaccompanied children and children evacuated from orphanages in Ukraine is inclusive of the needs of deaf children – providing their basic needs and offering essential psycho-social support until they can return safely to Ukraine. This project is, clearly, a long term piece of work and DeafKidz International is committed to working with its partners for the duration. Our experience in documenting the protection needs of deaf children caught up in the European refugee crisis showed that deaf children and their families are often overlooked during complex humanitarian events. Indeed, that in situations involving fragile or conflict affected states, rates of deafness in children are high as a result of poor maternal and neo-natal care; and in some instances, because of cultural intricacies such as consanguinity. Yet our evidence shows that humanitarian response fails to be inclusive of the communication needs of deaf children and their rights to protection are often ignored. This creates further issues in that deaf children experiencing psycho-trauma as a result of their exposure to conflict rarely access support. Being left alone to comprehend the events around them, with no dedicated and specific psycho-social provision afforded in the communication mode of choice – sign language, community-ethnic sign or sign supported spoken language. In Ukraine, Romania and Moldova, we will continue our vital work, as we have previously done in Greece and France. No deaf child should have to experience conflict – and we shall continue our mission to ensure no deaf child is left behind.

New Global Ambassador Tasha Ghouri

As we mark the end of International Week of Deaf People 2022, we are thrilled to announce model, actress and influencer Tasha Ghouri, known most recently for being the first deaf contestant in ITV’s Love Island, has joined the DeafKidz International team of Global Ambassadors.

We are so grateful for Tasha’s ongoing support of our work – she has long supported DeafKidz and we are delighted to have her on board as an Ambassador.

Tasha explains why she’s joining as a Global Ambassador and supporting our work:

“Before entering the villa I had raised money for DeafKidz because of who they are as an organisation, they are a small team but the work, ethic and values is amazing and the reason why I want to continue working with DeafKidz is because they continuously work to protect children in low-middle income countries from domestic abuse. Deaf children are three times more likely to be abused than hearing children so they are at more risk. DeafKidz prevent the abuse of deaf children, young people and vulnerable adults – with the donations they ensure that they have equal access to education and health opportunities. I’m so proud to be joining this organisation.

Everyday I think how damn lucky I am to even receive a cochlear implant whilst there’s children / young adults that can’t even access this. I’m joining forces with DeafKidz to continue to make a difference, by doing everything I possibly can to help raise awareness and funds for the organisation so that we can work towards a world where all children and young adults with superpowers are able to access audiologists and treatment just as I was”.

We can’t wait to continue working with Tasha – watch this space for news!

Photo credit: Adam Brazier

Sign up to the XRAI Glass Pilot Scheme!

Today, Friday 29th July 2022, XRAI Glass have launched the public preview of its revolutionary technology. XRAI Glass is a pioneering software product with a mission to enrich conversation for millions of people around the world who are deaf or experience hearing loss.

Users wearing phone-tethered augmented reality (AR) smart glasses will be able to read speech in real-time through closed captioning. The XRAI Glass software converts audio into a subtitled version of conversation which will then appear on the user’s glasses screen. The software’s sophisticated voice recognition capabilities can identify who’s speaking and will soon have the power to translate languages, voice tones, accents, and pitch.

Our Founder and Chair, Steve Crump OBE, was in their office this week testing a pair of the glasses and said:

“As a profoundly deaf person myself, I was blown away by this technology. When I tried on the glasses, I was astonished – real time subtitles that enable you to engage and participate as never before. I see XRAI Glass as a hugely positive force, and I can’t wait to work with the team to help bring this to life.”

If you think you would benefit from using XRAI Glass and are interested in taking part in the trial period, sign up to take part at https://xrai.glass

The glasses will be available online to purchase by EE network customers for an upfront cost of £10 then £35 per month for 11 months or at EE stores nationwide for non-EE customers for £399.99. There will be no cost for the software during the public preview and the price following the public preview will be based on feedback from pilot user.

If you have any questions about getting involved in the pilot scheme, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at info@deafkidzinternational.org

Congratulations to our Founder & Chair, Steve Crump, on his OBE

It was whilst serving as a board member of War Child UK that Steve learnt of the appalling abuse and exploitation of deaf children, especially in conflict-affected areas of sub- Saharan Africa, which – while pervasive and prevalent – was largely ignored by international organisations and the wider child protection community. Resolving to address this injustice, Steve founded DeafKidz International in 2013, which is today, emerging as the global leader for the safeguarding and protection of deaf children. Over the years, Steve has worked relentlessly to ensure that deaf children and young people are able to live safely and without fear of stigma, discrimination and abuse in their communication mode of choice.

Reacting to his award, Steve said, “’I was surprised and stunned in equal measure to be awarded an OBE. This honour is very much a team award and one that recognises the tireless work of our trustee, staff and partner teams as we work to ensure, globally, that deaf children and young people are safe from abuse and exploitation. In just nine years, DeafKidz International has come a long way but there is much more to do – and so in our tenth anniversary year in 2023, we will be looking to redouble our efforts. To ensure no deaf child is left behind.”

Rt Hon Lord Bruce of Bennachie, Honorary President and Ambassador of DeafKidz International, said, “Since I first met Steve, I have been amazed at his energy and commitment. He has built DeafKidz International into an amazing force for good for deaf people in situations where they are ignored or, worse still, persecuted. They are so lucky to have a champion in Steve by their side. This award is a fitting tribute to his work to date – and there is much more to come.”

“We are so proud of Steve for this very well-deserved recognition of his commitment to the safeguarding and protection of deaf children. Steve is the life force behind DeafKidz International and his drive and dedication inspires us every day. While this is a personal honour for Steve, we at DeafKidz International feel seen and acknowledged by this award and it spurs us on to continue our work to ensure deaf children can live safely and enjoy their rights fully in an inclusive world”, said Kavita Prasad, Chief Executive Officer of DeafKidz International.

Liz Avital, the Vice-Chair of DeafKidz International, said, “On behalf of the Board of DeafKidz International, I would like to congratulate Steve Crump on the enormous achievement and honour of being awarded an OBE. This is the truest reflection of Steve’s determination and tenacity to act upon his belief that deaf children, young people and adults should be protected from abuse and exploitation. Over the past 10 years, Steve has worked relentlessly, juggling the demands of his work and career with the often-competing demands of starting a new charity, a testament to him but also to his family, who have supported him throughout. Steve is a man on a mission, a tireless force of nature, always looking for the next opportunity for DeafKidz to reach even more people. Huge congratulations, and here’s to the next 10 years.”

While a lot has been done, there is still a long way to go to ensure deaf children everywhere are safe and protected from harm. We are certain that this award will drive Steve to further advance the work of DeafKidz International and keep going, until we have realised our vision of a world, where deaf children are able to live safely, without the fear of abuse and exploitation.