Every year on 27th June, we celebrate Helen Keller's birthday by hosting the Anne Sullivan Excellence Awards for Teachers for the Deaf. This event is an annual feature eagerly anticipated by the teaching community here in Hyderabad.

This year we gave awards to seven teachers of the deaf for their outstanding service to the field of deaf education. The Commissioner for Disabilities of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Sunder Vadan, presented the awards.

One of our long-standing dreams was also realized this past June 27th with the opening of the DEAF REACH Pre School for the deaf, the opening also officiated by the Commissioner. The Preschool is housed on property donated by Mrs. Christine Lazarus, former State Legislator and our Chairperson. The property required renovation and construction, and many individuals and companies came forward and donated construction materials. The preschool is unique in that all the teachers are Deaf adults teaching deaf children. We have an initial class of five deaf children.

When we first launched the Anne Sullivan Excellence Awards, an article covering this appeared in the "Deccan Chronicle", the largest circulated English newspaper in the state of Andhra Pradesh.