The Learning Center For The Deaf

The purpose of the “Learning Center for the Deaf” (LCD), which is a non-profit, non-political, and non-sectarian association, located in Baabda-Brasilia, Lebanon, is to provide quality programs to respond to the urgent needs of deaf persons in Lebanon, with emphasis on education, in its broad meaning, as a tool for change and advancement of the deaf community.The team (management and teachers) of the LCD fervently believes in the empowerment of the Deaf in general, including the family of the deaf person, and reaches out to the world of hearing with information that helps spread awareness about deafness and how to deal with the deaf. Therefore the LCD has initiated challenging services and programs that were not available in the country before, in order to complement the existing programs and provide better possibilities and opportunities for the deaf and their family members. The LCD today presents many important services to the deaf community in relation to the Disabled Persons Law 220/2000 and advocacy, for the development of Lebanese Sign Language, and other services. These were added to the two major and unique programs that were consecutively initiated by the LCD in 2001 and 2003, being the family-based Early Intervention Program and the High School Program. The High School aims to provide deaf young people the choice of passing the official Baccalaureate (High School) exams and heading to University, like their hearing peers. The Early Intervention Program which is a rich comprehensive program prior to school age, is a stepping stone that empowers the family and provides them the tools to surround the child with a rich environment supportive of his/her general development, with a greater emphasis on language. This stepping stone preeminently determines the quality of the future life of many Deaf children.