Director of Fundraising: Abdul Hakim Khan
|
 |
|||||||||||
Abdul Hakim Khan was diagnosed with a hearing loss at the age of two, but how he lost it remains a mystery. He grew up in Karachi and was the only hard of hearing student at the International School of Karachi. He graduated in 2001 and moved to Pittsburgh to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
After receiving his Bachelor’s degree Hakim worked in Iowa for one year at John Deere. It was here that he befriended a hard of hearing co-worker who introduced him to sign language and deaf culture. He later moved to Chicago to work at Universal Oil Products and has been working there for the past two years.
Hakim started learning sign language three years ago and he hasn’t stopped. He appreciates the ease of communication that sign language provides in situations where he would otherwise struggle to understand through lip reading and assistive listening devices. He has met all kinds of deaf people in the US over the past three years but very few deaf Muslims because there are no organizations to support them. He found out about GDM at the Islamic Society of North America Convention and believes in their mission to develop a community for deaf Muslims.