An online sign language interpretation service for the deaf community of Pakistan that has won two awards recently at the Youth Co:Lab Summit in Veitnam.
Yes! Two awards were handed over to this Pakistani startup when most couldn’t even grab one. And to add to this impressive news, the founders of this start up are specially baked themselves. Let’s dive right in to their journey;
The core problem:
When it comes to a third world country like Pakistan, the human resources are not as readily available in proportion to the problems that the population faces. And those with disabilities, that constitute to being 22 million of the population (statistics by WHO), are further thrown down the ladder as they are not given opportunities to contribute. Deaf people (9 million of the population) can communicate with sign language but in today’s world of smartphones, not being able to hear over the phone would be a great disadvantage over those who can hear. Thus, comes in DeafTalk.
The disruptive solution:
Losing the strength of 9 million people is quite a loss. Hence, DeafTawk aims to create a communication bridge for this impaired community to contribute to their life qualities as well as give them a shot in boosting the economy. So, in order to hear over phone calls, DeafTawk is an app that gives the option to you of either being the interpreter or the deaf person when you login. After entering your biodata, it provides the deaf people with monthly monetary packages whereas the interpreters have the incentive of earning in this manner.
Journey of the inventors:
Wamik Hassan, Ali Shabbar, Abdul Qadir and Sheema Ahmed are the phenomenal individuals nehind this initiative. The idea was initially conceived by Wamik who wasn’t promoted after fifth class by his school due to his hearing disability. His parents then sent him to New York where he worked up his way to become a computer engineer. After 14 years, Wamik came back to Pakistan and witnessed that in the span of that decade, still nothing had been done for the aid of the deaf community. That is when Wamik decided to work for this cause. Abdul Qadir was his partner in Telenor who would translate his calls for him in sign language, were they worked together with the other two as well. After leaving their jobs behind, they ventured off for the development of this app. Hashoo foundation, who are shareholders of big hotels like Marriott and P.C, were their first partners. And then the National Incubation Center of Pakistan selected their idea and have been funding it for further development.
Current position:
DeafTawk initiative has won a Euro Award. In STG’s bootcamp they won an award of 2500 dollars. After getting selected for the Agro Impact award they managed to conquest Rs. 2 million. DeafTalk has 922 users in the 9 months of its initiation. Rs. 500 per month is their most availed ASL interpretation package. The feedback is brilliant to an extent that the founders aim to go international as per requests from various countries i.e. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam. 69 deaf persons got enrolled in jobs like in KFC, Koh-I-Noor, nestle etc. because of this start-up and 14 deaf persons have been enrolled in higher education by availing this application. More people are coming on board with this construct by the passing day.
And thus, coming to their latest ventures would be that team DeafTawk was in Vietnam for the Youth Co:Lab summit the past week. They were also the national winners from the UNDP Change Summit. And were now selected to compete against 40 teams regionally to represent Pakistan at the Youth Co:Lab Summit where they have achieved two awards.
Their story inspires us to take the big leap. Team deaftawk was specially abled and they used that to their full potential. More power to you team deaftawk!
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