Deaf girl from Costa Rica gains an education in Canada

From The Calgary Herald in Canada:

Nine-year-old Stephania Ballestero's hands move wildly, her face rapidly shifting into a variety of emotive expressions as she catches up with her family via a weekly Skype computer call home to Costa Rica.

She tells her mother that she's reading in English, an amazing feat considering the little girl's native language is Spanish and she's been enrolled in a Calgary school only since late December, shortly after her arrival here on a six-month visa.

But most astonishing, Stephania (pictured) is deaf and speaks LESCO, the sign language of Costa Rica. Yet she's reading English and translating into a different sign language than her own as she goes along.

In the few weeks since she arrived, the effervescent little girl has become multilingual, learning English as well as American Sign Language, which she uses to communicate with her caregiver, Ryan O'Farrell, who plucked her out of an impoverished life in a rural village in her Central American homeland.

"It's amazing," says O'Farrell, the Calgarian who excavated a mountain of red tape to bring the little girl to Canada.

"She's soaking up the vocabulary like a med student," says O'Farrell.

O'Farrell met Stephania and her family while living in Costa Rica last year.

The Calgary web designer and single dad was enraptured by the spirited and bright girl when she first knocked at his door, sent there by her parents to beg for money. They, too, are deaf. Neither is employed, and the family lives in an impoverished rural village in the mountains of the tropical country, about an hour from the country's capital of San Jose. There are few publicly funded resources to assist Stephania.

O'Farrell said he felt compelled to help the family and, among other financial supports, paid for Stephania's school uniform and books so she could attend the local school, where she was teased by other students and bullied and went without any extra help or resources.

When he suggested bringing Stephania to Canada, the girl's parents jumped at the opportunity to give their daughter a shot at a better future.

But it hasn't been easy.

Stephania was initially supposed to come last July, but a variety of bureaucratic problems held her up.

And there were financial pressures for O'Farrell, who was funding the entire effort from his own pocket, until another Calgarian learned of what he was doing and jumped on board.

Inge Hards has donated both time and money to O'Farrell to assist in Stephania's care.

She's just one of a number of Calgarians who have stepped in to help, O'Farrell said.

"I knew what was coming, with the hearing problem," said Hards, who also furnished Stephania's room and bought her clothes after her arrival.

Hards knows the challenges and special needs of deaf children -- she and husband Cecil raised a son with a congenital disorder that left him unable to hear since birth.

Colin Hards, now 38, was sometimes tormented as a child and constantly frustrated by being deaf in a hearing world, leading to physical altercations in his teenage years.

He persevered through many struggles, but eventually learned how to cope and triumph over his disability, and today owns his own personal training business. Though he learned sign language, Colin also learned to speak, despite being utterly deaf.

"It's quite a long, challenging road," said Inge, who along with her husband was instrumental in the creation of Calgary's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Society.

"I just put myself in his place.

"It's critical to have the proper facilities and the support. I don't think he knew what he was getting into."

Stephania, who was escorted by her mother Haydi, who stayed for several weeks before deciding to return to Costa Rica, appears to have easily made the transition and even says she loves snow.

She is enrolled in the deaf program at Queen Elizabeth School in northwest Calgary, where she was assessed and placed in Grade 4 -- exactly where she should be for her age, despite having come from Costa Rica.

"She's become something of a star. The teachers just love her," said O'Farrell, who has nothing but praise for how the public system has embraced Stephania.

Stephania, meantime, laments that she prefers recess to math. Asked what she likes best about being at school, Stephania replies with a series of hand gestures that O'Farrell translates, having since learned American Sign Language, as well.

"I like having deaf friends," she says, breaking into a grin.

Robyn Mackie, of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Society, mentors Stephania and has helped her in her transition here.

She said cultural understanding as well as support systems are critical to people who can't hear.

As a deaf person, Mackie said she's faced many challenges, not the least of which is "ignorant people who think deaf people need to be fixed."

"Having resources such as interpreters, closed-captioned TV shows, equipments, excellent educational system, cellphones with text and computer accesses are unquestionably vital to us deaf people," Mackie said in an e-mail interview.

Stephania has all those things -- for now.

Her visa expires in May. Beyond that, her future remains uncertain. Until then, she'll continue to attend school and, hopes O'Farrell, thrive.

The raven-haired, blue-eyed girl says she misses her mom, but shrugs when asked if she wants to return to the place most people consider a tropical paradise, then replies with a hand gesture.

"Why?"