A YOUNG student has proved deafness is no obstacle after winning an award for her voluntary work with children.
Nida Hanid, who was nominated by her parents for a Pride in our People award, also won a Star award out of 10,000 young people at Uxbridge College, in her department, the School of English Language Teaching.
She took English as a Second Language course and showed remarkable skills, despite having to use an interpreter.
Nida,25 and her mother, Mussarrat, 54, of Verulam Road, Greenford, were recently recognised ny Ealing Volunteer Centre for their volunteer work at SNIPS, a toddlers playgroup in West Ealing.
Mussarrat, who volunteered first in 2008 and was later joined by Nida in 2009, said: "We are so proud of Nida. She is amazing. The children really love her and she draws with them. Sometimes if they talk to her and she doesn't reply their parents explain she is deaf and they don't mind at all. If I am there without her they ask me where she is."
Signing to her mother, Nida said: "I love to play with the children. Being deaf doesn't make any difference." Nida and her brother, Sohail, were both born deaf when the family lived in Kenya. Mussarrat, who has six children altogether, said: "We only realised Nida was deaf when she was one. She had her back to me and didn't respond. The doctor just said to me: 'it's lucky she is beautiful.' Sometimes she feels frustrated, but mostly it is OK. She is very sensitive and understands us."
Nida said: "It is more difficult when I am out and someone says something to me."
She is now studying IT at Southall College where she has someone assigned to help her and hopes to go to university.
