Deaf Soliciting Donations_Be[a]ware!

Yesterday, I was in Libertad buying something for the house. Inside a Chinese store, a group huddled to an elderly woman. The woman is Deaf. I joined the group with the intention of helping her in case she wanted to buy something and could not be understood. Even if my knowledge of FSL is not much, I am confident that the survival words that I know would suffice. She confirmed that she’s Deaf when I asked her. She has come for some donation one of the workers said. She pointed at the table of the store supervisor where I saw a laminated card with four logos asking for donation. It was as big as a quarter of bond paper. PFD’s reminder flashed in my head. I asked her if it that was genuine. She said yes. Then I said I would give donation myself but I’d take a picture of the card. That was my immediate reaction as we have been alerted by the Philippine Federation of the Deaf with regards some Deaf who are using fake papers and using Deaf org’s logo without their knowledge. Honestly, I just had a glance at the logos so I didn’t quite remember whether the PFD logo was there. But she started getting mad when I aimed at getting my camera to take a shot of the card that she was presenting to the employees. Inaway na ako. [She must have signed invectives against me as I read her visual gestural expression. She was quite mad]. She rushed out after that.

The fact that she had had so wild a reaction only meant – I would assume– that she was carrying fake documents.  Fortunately, I couldn’t understand what she was signing because it was quite fast. So, whatever she was signing during her mad moments didn’t mean a thing to me. Anyway, my last understanding of what she signed then was: “You are not Deaf!” as I replied, “Yes! I am hearing.” [Hmm!!! She must be thinking that I was posing as Deaf]

In case you encounter people like that – take care!!! Be cautious. They could just be taking you for a fool. Think of PFD’s warning. Ah!!! people like this can destroy what honest, real and true Deaf self-advocates are doing to gain the esteem and respect that they are demanding from the society. Quite sad!

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