Voiceless People: Not by Choice

The aim and purpose of the blog, Unheard Voices of Armenia is to empower the Deaf and Hard of Hearing who have remained voiceless for so many years in Armenia.
The Deaf and Hard of Hearing, among others, have been labeled as being "disabled". According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "Disabled" is defined as:
"to disqualify legally, to make unable to perform by or as if by illness, injury or malfunction"
According to that definition then, not only are the Deaf and the like disabled, but others can be disabled at any given time. for example, how many of us had not had the following experience: You wake up one day and everything under the blue sky goes amok making you unable to perform your daily routine that you know like the back of your hand. You feel "disabled" , don't you?
the Deaf have been labeled "Disabled" but they themselves believe that their situation is not like a disabled car that needs "fixing".There is nothing dis-abled in them...they simply have lost the use of an organ , the ear, and consequently cannot hear. They are like any other human being but with a hearing loss. Come to think of it, don't we know people who hear but don't listen; who look but don't see; who talk but say nothing.
Many in Armenia, specially nowadays, are unheard not because they choose to be so but because they are forced to remain unheard and voiceless. The reason , in my opinion, that most of us choose not to hear these voiceless people is we want for them to go away...reminding me of an ostrich...I don't see them, so they don't exist. It is our responsibility to not only hear them but to listen to what they have to say.
"Remember that people with disabilities lead lives just like people without disabilities : they go to school, get married, work, have families, do laundry, shop, laugh, cry, pay taxes, get angry have prejudices, vote, plan and dream like everyone else."www. easterseals.com
As stated above, there are many others in Armenia who are unheard: the battered women, the abused children, the landmine victims, and the political prisoners...just to name a few. Eventually , their stories will also be told in this blog.
Unheard Voices of Armenia is your blog as well.
Unheard Voices of Armenia may be you ...