Alicia Sort and Geeta: Deaf People Helping other Deaf People

English translation: Ixone Sáenz Paraíso

Another film inspired by Deaf people, but with a moral background. Geeta is a Deaf girl who has been trapped for more than a decade in Pakistan. When they found her in Pakistan, she was around ten years old and didn't remember where she came from. A Pakistani charity, Edhi Foundation, welcomed her since then. A few years ago, her case began to drag media attention which led Bollywood to premiere a film inspired by her story: "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" (The title can be translated as something like this 'The Devout Brother').

La joven sorda Geeta perdida en Pakistán y regresada a India

Geeta (image: Adnan Abidi / Reuters)

Mainly through the success of the film in both India and Pakistan, the Indian government promised to bring Geeta back to India. Thus, on October 26, 2015, Geeta landed in New Delhi with a great media impact and received by the Indian Foreign Ministry. She was then 23 years old.

Since then, they are looking for her family. Four families have claimed her but Geeta has not recognised them. Meanwhile, the Indin government decided to bring her to a Deaf school in Indore where, coincidentally or not, Alicia Sort, a deaf psychologist from Catalonia, was working as a volunteer there for three months.

Alicia Sort (image: El Mundo)

When Alicia arrived in India, she quickly learnt the local Sign Language, which allows her to communicate with Geeta without difficulty and provide her psychological support. This kind of support is difficult to find in that country due to the lack of competent Sign Language professionals.

Deaf people are often accused of consuming resources from society, of being recipients of help to facilitate their integration, when in fact all this shows the limitations of the society to welcome all its citizens in equality. At Unusualverse stories are told about Deaf people contributing to the enrichment of society. This one is the story of deaf people such as Alicia who helps other Deaf people such as Geeta who helps the society and the Indian Government to solve their problems.

This is the trailer of the movie by Bollywood and relaunched Geeta's popularity (English subtitles):