Our Story

Early Days

Pine Hill Academy for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Children was founded by Madam Zohra Masood Khan in 2005 in the Kashmiri city of Rawalakot. At that time the region was dealing with the fallout from the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake which took over 86000 lives and displaced millions.

Mrs Khan was based in Geneva at the time. Learning of the earthquake, Zohra travelled to Rawalakot, her place of birth to contribute to the disaster relief efforts. During this time she came across a family with two deaf children. Having raised a deaf daughter herself, she was excited to communicate with these children. She was surprised and deeply saddened to learn that these children had never attended school, were unable to sign or lip read and were limited in their communications.

This incident led Zohra to realise two things; firstly, how lucky her own daughter had been to have had always had access to good deaf education institutes her entire childhood. Secondly, that there was no way she could turn a blind eye to this situation. Within a matter of months, with personal finance and the kindness of friends and family Zohra rented a house, hired and trained a special education teacher and started Pine Hill Academy with a total student body of 4 children!

The Journey Here

Over the next few months word spread and soon every family with a deaf child within travelling distance had enrolled them at the Academy. Those kids who were based in remote locations were given support for travel. As the student body grew, so did our school. We hired and trained more teachers from the local community, friends and family helped us to furnish the school & provide computers, we created individual classrooms, we secured a curriculum. Albeit on a shoe-string, but we had a school for deaf children!

The Road Ahead

We have come so far, much further than Zohra had dared to imagine on that cold day in Rawalakot, when she met those two deaf children. Realising how much good we have done and are continuing to provide, we have committed to doing even more. We have plans to build a permanent school on a piece of land that has been generously donated to us, to have our own transport, to introduce vocational skill training into the curriculum and to set up student accommodation so that this school may be able to serve all of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, instead of just this town.