NAIROBI, 11 Apr 2006 (IRIN) - Hearing-impaired children in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, now have reason to enjoy a normal childhood, thanks to the opening of the country's first and only school for students with hearing difficulties.

"For many families, our school is the only one - not only in Mogadishu, but throughout the country - that offers normal classes to their children," said Usman Muhammad Mahamud, the school's director, on Tuesday.

Mahamud, who recently returned from South Africa where he was studying, said he became aware of the need for such a school after he saw neighbours' hearing-impaired children. "It is heartbreaking to see a six-year-old deaf child standing at the doorstep, watching his or her siblings going off to school, while they have nowhere to go but play around in the sand," he said.

Mahamud, along with other Somalis from abroad, decided to open a school that catered to hearing-impaired children. The demand for a place at the school "has been amazing," he said. "Almost all the children in the school would never have had the opportunity to go to school. You should see them. They are so eager and happy to be in school. The school has opened doors they never dreamed of."

The students are now interacting with others through sign language. "We have a few hearing students, and we make it compulsory that they also learn sign language," he said. "We even have adults coming to the school to learn sign language."

However, as the number of students has increased, Mahamud has been faced with the challenge of finding more teachers with the appropriate training. There is already a general shortage of teachers in Somalia, because very few new teachers had entered the profession in the last 15 years. "It is proving very difficult to find ones able to teach deaf children," he said.

The school should be expanded to take more children, "but at the moment we do not have the capacity," he said. "Up to now, we have been sustained by support from the parents and the odd businessman." The parents barely have the means to sustain their families, let alone finance a school. He feared that economic hardship and a lack of government support would hinder the school's progress.

Mahamud has appealed to Somali well wishers in the diaspora and the international community "to help the school help this most neglected group." The school also needs educational material for the hearing impaired, computers and "help with training teachers and expanding the classrooms," he said.