Raabia Hussain: Volunteering in Kenya with young Deaf people

My name is Raabia Hussain, I am from Oldham, Greater Manchester and I am an independent filmmaker.

In May 2019 I flew to Kenya for four months volunteering with a placement that took place in Nandi County in Kenya as part of VSO (Volunteer Service Overseas) and ICS (International Citizen Service).

I was a Team Leader at Nandi County Cycle 8,  a Deaf team from the UK and Kenya aged from 18 – 25.

My role involved guiding, support and encouraging the volunteers to reach their goal and bring their vision into reality.

I was also responsible for community outreach, informing them about the importance of disabled children needing to go to school and raising awareness about disabilities in the community and how communities can help disabled people by adjusting services to match their needs.

Being Deaf is one of the biggest challenges that a person can face and it does not matter wherever you are in the world. 

In Kenya, it is usually seen as a curse and children with disabilities are hidden away with no education or social interaction within the community.

Our project in Nandi County tackled the challenges suffered by disabled youths within the community with the focus on access education, employment and inclusion.

During my time, I also took on the role of filmmaker to document the journey of the VSO team in Nandi County and see what their views were in having VSO in their communities, schools, services and their impact.

ICS/VSO volunteers led a march to highlight the importance of supporting children and young people with disabilities in Nandi County so they can access information and equitable education.

We also set up classes teaching Kenya Sign Language (KSL) so that people can learn KSL in order to communicate with the Deaf people in their community.

Our theme was “Disability Inclusive Education” which means we worked towards this theme for the duration of our project.

It is one of the hardest jobs that I have had in my career as a filmmaker because I didn’t have enough support. Normally I would work with a team where there would be producers, directors and others.

I was working on my own, I did the research, the filming and the editing which wasn’t easy along with being the Team Leader for the volunteers.

The volunteers were my biggest priority, they were my responsibility so I had to ensure that the placement was run smoothly and ensure that I always checking on the volunteers with their work.

If any issues arose,  it was my responsibility as a team leader to solve the problem and make sure that the team were happy and comfortable again.

If my volunteers became sick, it was my responsibility to get the volunteer checked into the local hospital and so their medical needs were met.

It was overwhelming and very emotional because of the people I was working with and the transformation we saw. 

We filmed the story of a mother with two disabled children. It was a very heart-warming story to see a mother who was so enthusiastic about ensuring that her children got the full support. The film talked about disability issues and how to tackle communication. 

This is something I am really proud of and I love the volunteers who want to make a change – without them it would not be possible.

I can truly say that is was the best 14 weeks of my life so far and Kenya was the most amazing, beautiful carefree country I have ever been to although I do not think it is possible to capture in words my time in Kenya! 

This experience has been life changing. I have learnt so many things and it was brilliant to have both UK and Kenyans in the team, learning each other’s cultures. It is so important to use young volunteers because it can have an impact on our learning and we can pass it onto people back in the UK.

 I hope that in creating the documentary of my time working on the project, this will change the worldwide perceptions of disability and help empower change.

Raabia Hussain, independent filmmaker, has worked on numerous mainstream documentaries and projects with an internationally well-known broadcaster. For the last few years she has worked for ITV in a variety of roles including directing, producing documentaries and has worked on programmes including Mission Employable. She’s a big fan of script-writing and photography is one of her main hobbies. In 2012 Raabia gained worldwide attention with her first short film created as part of BSL Zone titled “September 11th”.