Grey Bear Culture Magazine

BSL Silver was founded by Shakila Kosar to support the deaf community and provide free BSL classes to improve communication between hearing and deaf communities. She was inspired to learn BSL for her son, Zehn, whilst she was pregnant, as doctors told her he was going to be born profoundly (fully) deaf and have no hearing by the time he was 30.

One of Zehn’s sisters, Hanna Khan, volunteers alongside her mother, and studied BSL to help teach it as well.

Hanna is proud of her mother and everything that BSL Silver have accomplished and explained Shakila’s journey towards founding the charity.

“My mum tought BSL for 17 years. She started because she thought my brother was going to be profoundly deaf when he was born. And have no hearing by the time he was 30. At the time my mum had no formal qualifications and she had no job. She was made homeless by her landlord and she was really struggling. So when she found out that Zehn was going to be deaf she wanted to do something for him. So, she took classes, got the proper qualifications and started teaching. She worked as an interpreter and taught at Solihull College.

“I am extremely proud of the work my mum has done.

“Until I took that step into BSL, I didn’t know what my mum was doing, and when I did I learned to appreciate it even more. I’ve got more of an appreciation of it.”

After teaching BSL for almost two decades, Shakila wanted to help the deaf community further. Many BSL classes are expensive and unaffordable for deaf people, so she strived to provide completely free courses for deaf people of all ages. She then started BSL Silver to do this.

“About 3 years ago she wanted to help deaf people have access to the language.

“She felt as though everyone deserved to speak it. Deaf people should be included in society because they’re really not.

“Most people tend to just ignore deaf people.

“We’ve had about 300 students come in, and it’s all free. It feels really nice to be able to help people.”

BSL Silver was actually named after Shakila, as Hanna taught me, in sign-language most people have sign-names. It can take a long time to spell someone’s name especially if they share a name, so it makes communication easier.

“You can summarise it all in one word. For example, my name is Law, as when I was doing my A-Levels I studied Law with Psychology and Sociology. Which applies now as I do Police Investigation. My mum’s is Silver, as 17 years ago when she first started out she used to wear this horrendous big silver jewellery which everyone recognised.”

Hanna began studying BSL at College with her mother who was teaching it there. Involved with BSL Silver Hanna originally helped set up classes and organise events. But after getting her Level One Certificate in BSL she was qualified to help with workshops and teaching beginner’s classes.

After starting with the basics such as greetings, numbers, and colours, she then got her Level Two and was qualified to teach four beginners classes.

“Just being able to help people is so nice.

“We can show people the proper routes to take and what help is available.

“Being able to communicate when you’re signing with people and meeting new people. It’s completely different there. They have their own norms and their own values. When you speak to them they get really happy, it’s like a whole different world you’re getting involved with.”

Despite loving her voluntary work, Hanna explained there were still some hardships as she understands the disconnect she has as a hearing person compared to the deaf community.

“Because I’m not deaf, it’s a little more difficult for me to place myself within the issues of deaf people themselves. They have their own life experiences and struggles. Because I’m not fully deaf I can’t understand that, I can only try and empathise with them.”

BSL Silver has had a massive impact on the whole of Hanna’s family, especially on Zhen, who originally had studied to get a degree in Sound Technology.

“A lot of deaf people don’t go into an industry involving sound, so for him it was a massive achievement. He wanted to go into music and be a sound technician. However, as his hearing deteriorated he moved away from his degree and towards nursing.

“He comes to every workshop and he volunteers and comes to every group. He is very consistent and everyone knows him.

“People know him as Silver’s son and the reason she started. He’s created bonds within the community so if he does lose all his hearing in a few years, he has a community around him to support him. He’s a link between the hearing and deaf communities as he can communicate with both.”

Regarding the other work that BSL Silver offers, they do more than offer free BSL classes. This work includes working on creating a dictionary and working with the Government.

“We’ve had three Lord Mayors visit, the Lord Mayors of Solihull, Birmingham, and Sutton Coldfield. They’ve all shown great interest in us. We’ve also had several opportunities as teachers to work with the BBC to help deliver translations.

“This month we’ve been invited to go to a tea party at Lord Mayor Shahin Ashraf’s place of work to engage in conversations and have our input on the deaf community’s behalf.”

In the future Hanna only hopes that they continue to grow and expand so they can continue working on a larger scale.

“In the far future we want to open up more areas and have our own building.”

Shakila, Hanna, and Zhen are only a few of the people working to fight discrimination against deaf people across the UK.

Although there is still a long fight ahead of them, their hard-work is paying off and BSL Silver has accomplished some amazing things in supporting the deaf community and bridging the gap between them and the hearing community.

By Cameron Wagg