Shri.Murali Kuppusamy has asked me to write a report on our recent tour visiting different schools for deaf students and giving workshops at several Deaf Associations in South India. It is a honor for me to present the report to you today. First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Aya Katharina Kremp from Berlin, Germany. I am deaf and work as a deaf teacher at a deaf school in Berlin.

When reading this report, I would like to ask the reader to keep in mind that this report is written by an outsider who is not an Indian person or has been living in India for several years. The report is written by a female, deaf, white and German person who had the own personal motivation to learn more about the lives of deaf people in developing countries like India. During the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) Congress in Montreal, Canada, in 2003, I met. Murali Kuppusamy with whom I had an exchange about the situation of deaf people in India general. I became very interested in his so hard, tiresome and yet successful work at his school in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, in spite of all the struggles he is facing in the oppressive environment. Such works need to be applauded and shared with the deaf community in India itself but also to the world deaf community. Due to my former experiences in South Africa and meetings with many deaf people from the so called developing countries I have started to rais e an awareness of the struggles of deaf people living in such regions. I "know" how they struggle every day in an environment that is oppressed by the hearing society - a lot more than it is common in the so called developed countries. So, I wanted to visit that school he was even leading as a deaf person and to see the dynamic and successful work of Murali and his staff to educate the young deaf adults. At the same time I was willing due Murali Kuppusamys request to give the deaf people in India all my supports to make a first step in waking up the Indian Deaf Community from the "Sleeping Beauty" and share with them my knowledge too. But at the same time learn from them too.

In conclusion, I would like again to point out that my report is mainly focused on a collective sharing of my experiences and views of my visit at more than 20 deaf schools and at 5 Deaf Associations in South India over a period of about less than a month. Besides, I want to point out clearly that it is not my intention to "tell" the Indian Deaf Community and the hearing people who are involved with the Deaf Community what to do. The report is to be understood as a sharing of my observations as a Non-Indian citizen I have made during this visit in this short time frame. And yet the reader may be surprised that many of the problems listed in the report exist all over the world, even in my native country !

It is time for all deaf people to stand up and to lead their lives. It is time for hearing people to listen to the deaf people and to treat them equally as fully members of both in the native and the world society.