About Us

DEAF LEADERS Foundation

The strong purpose of Deaf Leaders Foundation was born out of necessity after a distressful incident. The founders suffered too much discrimination at their workplace due to their deafness and lacked equality in the workplace and other phases of life. The decision to stand for themselves and the entire deaf community has lead to empowering thousands of lives. DLF was founded in the year 2004, since then we uplift every generation towards life-long learning and establish a sustainable livelihood.

Our Story

Over the past 20 years since the inception of Deaf Leaders Foundation, the organization has stayed true to its core vision and mission – to enhance the quality of life for the deaf and hearing-impaired in the society through holistic interventions and a sustainable strategy. The organization functions on the belief that disability in any form is not a hindrance towards achieving economic independence. This philosophy is shared with the members through adequate counselling and vocational training. The focus is to ensure that the members feel secure and confident to face the world despite their hearing impairment.

The initial fund for the DLF Trust was a small corpus, created by the trustees themselves. Over the years, the Trust has grown in stature and has resulted in significant impact at the grass-root level. Today “Deaf Leaders Foundation” is among the most sought-after charitable trusts and has helped hundreds of Hearing-Impaired people lead a healthy lifestyle with little or no assistance from society.

The vision and encompassing ideals of the Managing Trustee, Mr K. Murali, is worthy of praise and commendation. Being himself hearing impaired, he has taken his personal experiences as a guiding compass that has led to the Deaf Leaders Foundation which has been transforming lives of others whose similar challenges put them at a disadvantage in society. Mr K. Murali is a recipient of many awards for his services to the hearing and speech impaired community. He is an active social worker of repute and has immensely contributed to impacting the affected through skill-building programs. He devotes his entire time in running “Deaf Leaders Foundation.”

He has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards - The Best Award for Role Model by President of India – 2016, Best Award for Social Worker by Chief Minister – 2013, Best Award for Icon of Coimbatore – 2017 to name just a few.

He is actively involved in the Indian International Deaf Film Festival, India Deaf Innovation Expo, International Deaf Week – Public Awareness Program for Sign Language, Environment Awareness Program – Tree planting Program, Covai Open Marathon – Annual, Tamil Nadu Deaf Cricket T20 Cup, Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival and Special Classes for the Deaf in Coimbatore (A document wherein all his achievements are more elaborately discussed has been attached for your perusal).

In addition to these credentials, DLF has built a strong and credible position for itself over the past one and a half decades. The following are some of the initiatives, projects and programmes that DLF has launched and established: