Sounds of Silence

Sounds of Silence is a non-profit that started operations in 2009. It seeks to empower hearing impaired children and youth through education and training delivered through mobile phones, tablets and laptops using digital platforms such as Whatsapp, SMS and specially designed training modules.

It is a volunteer-driven organization and now has a team of more than 550 volunteers and interns working from across the country (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jammu), and some even from Pakistan.

It relies heavily on ICT and digital platforms such as e-mails, Google Drive, Whatsapp, etc. not only for training of hearing impaired students but also for all communication and work related purposes and tasks.

Apart from training hearing impaired school going children, SOS also trains hearing impaired adolescents who have completed their basic school education but have not yet been able to get sustainable job opportunities. It has set up India’s first chat based BPO driven by the deaf. The idea is to establish ‘Chat

Query’ buttons that will cater to basic day to day queries for its clients like Cleartrip, Dominos etc where in addition to the helpline SOS offers a chat-based customer care support. The revenue stream is designed on a per seat basis for each client depending on the visitor traffic expected to be catered to.

SOS provides trainees two months of basic communication training coupled with professional skills development on MS Office. Trainees are groomed to work on three functional domains:
1. Chat Based Customer Support
2. Social Media Marketing
3. SEO

It uses a Whatsapp Buddy Model where a buddy (volunteer) is assigned to each hearing impaired student, who communicates with the student in English on a daily basis. The buddy acts as a mentor to the student for life and guides the student in all aspects of life.