When she was three months old, Aya As’ad, 5 years old, became deaf following an Israeli aircraft bombing of a place very close to her home in the town of Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza.

Aya wishes that she could be able to play with her friends, talk to them and hear them when they talk to her, her mother says.

The number of hearing impaired individuals over 16 years in the Gaza Strip is about 10 thousand people, of both sexes: 80% of them do not receive any service.

Sabah Abu Amra, 27 years old, is waiting in a line for her turn to get the hearing aid devices, being distributed by the Future Society for the Deaf Adults, a project funded by the Egyptian Doctors Syndicate.

“I am always alone in my room at home. I do not join my family in any thing they do. I feel disappointed,” says Sabah.

“I have difficulty in dealing with people, especially when I go to the market to buy something. People do not understand sign language, so I feel disappointed whenever I have to contact people. This is why I choose to live by myself,” she adds.

Lack of services is the major problem for the deaf in Gaza, which suffers a blockade placed on it for nearly four years, since no medical supplies or medicines are allowed into the coastal strip.

Adham Eid, Director of the Future Society, says the Society is trying as much as possible to provide services to the deaf. It strives to integrate the disabled adults in the community through academic, professional, social and psychological rehabilitation programs.

The unemployment rate among the deaf is around 72%, while the poverty rate exceeds 85%, Eid adds.