WEBVTT

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Patrich Otema is 15 years old

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he was born deaf
but in this remote region

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of Northern Uganda, there are no school for deaf children

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in his whole life, Patrick has never had a conversation

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Hello. you good?

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his father, Charles, looks after him

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they are only able to communicate through very basic gestures

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we've been sitting here and talking about Patrick in front of him

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and while he's been watching us
he doesn't understand what we're saying

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it feels almost rude
but this is what Patrick's life is like all the time

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I'm here with someone who wants to change all that

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Raymond Okkelo is deaf himself
and a sign language teacher

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do you think he could learn sign language?

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this is pretty much Patrick's existence

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his father gestures him what he wants him to do

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and when he's finished, he goes back to his hut

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to spend the rest of the day on his own

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Patrick's fate is not unusual

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the majority of deaf people in Sub-saharan Africa

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have never been taught sign language

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unable to communicate with others,
they're trapped in their own minds.

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Raymond became deaf as a child after about of malaria

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six months ago, he traveled to the capital for intensive training in sign language

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now he returned to his village
to do something unprecedented

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he's going to teach the first sign language course ever set up here

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Raymond, are you nervous?

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it's 2 o'clock, the first deaf students start turning up

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and the class begins

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the course has already started,
but Patrick hasn't turned up yet

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and I'm worried his father couldn't convince him to leave home

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a few minutes later, Patrick arrives

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Patrick's transformation is amazing

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it's almost impossible to believe it's the same boy we met yesterday

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new deaf students keep arriving

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many have walked miles to be here

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there's a 9-year-old boy
and an 80-year-old woman

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before the end of the class,
each new student goes to the front

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the class votes on a new name for them

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this is now Patrick's sign name

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and he will use it for the rest of his life

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he has just been baptized into a whole new world