The Divine Fellowship Blind School

Sharon Miller is an immensely talented audiologist.  To be sure, her fellow travelers have no real basis to know if she is talented technically, but her ability to work with blind orphans was miraculous.  She has a natural ability to make them feel comfortable, as if they sensed from Sharon that she was doing something good for them.  She was somehow able to easily communicate with them as they were tested, fitted and adjusted, despite the fact that they spoke no English. 

Sharon separated from us on the day we visited Serampore so that she could go to the Divine Fellowship Blind School to test the children.  We have an account from her of the day of testing but due to technical difficulties we'll have to post the account later.

The pictures below are from the second day at the school, when Sharon fitted the hearing aids on six children.  Because the children did not speak English, Sharon asked Orijeet to speak to the children to check the volume level of the hearing aids.  As Orijeet moved further and further away, the child continued to respond as if Orijeet was standing right next to the child.  With no sight, and with the hearing aid now providing clear sounds, the child thought Orijeet wasn't moving.

What Sharon did was heroic.  Imagine if each one of us could apply a talent to help six impoverished children in a meaningful, long-lasting way as Sharon did.  What an impact that would have on the world.  

Sharon sets up her hearing lab

In the courtyard of the D.F. Blind School

This math and history teacher at the school is blind

himself and previously had been a stock broker

At age one, this little boy's parents broke his legs

so that he would be a more effective beggar

(you've all seen the movie - yes, it really happens).

When they realized they couldn't care for him,

his parents threw him on a trash pile to discard him

where he was rescured by the school.

Now, at age two, this child can walk,

although he loves to be held and carried.

This little girl was just brought to the school

from a neighboring village.  She doesn't speak the

same language as most of the other children and was

so frightened that she was sobbing uncontrollably.

Jennifer was able to comfort the child to the point

where the child fell asleep in her arms.

Sharon and her patients who can now hear clearly

for the first time in their lives