By Shelby Brooks
Finding a silence and a lack of awareness surrounding deaf and hard of hearing youth in developing countries, the late Reverend Neville Muir spent over 40 years dedicated to education, opportunities and breaking poverty and discrimination.
Mr Muir, formerly of Beaconsfield, was posthumously appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his significant service to the deaf community, and to the international Christian ministry, as part of the Australia Day Honours this year.
Mr Muir was the founder and international director of Deaf Ministries International, the founder and missionary for World Opportunities International and served as a teacher at the Victorian College for the Deaf.
He passed away in November of 2020.
His long-term project Deaf Action branched out to involve education and income-generating projects for deaf youth people across the world including in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China, Myanmar, the Philippines and in Africa.
“There have been so many remote areas that we visit where parents didn’t even know there was such a thing as another deaf child,” Mr Muir told the Gazette in 2016.
“You see lots of sad cases of kids being misunderstood and just becoming kitchen slaves.
“There are many parents who don’t know how to communicate with their own kids because they’ve never learnt sign language.
“It means that they often give up on trying to communicate with their families.
“There is a complete ignorance of deafness.”
Mr Muir’s involvement in the deaf and hard of hearing community began when he took part in a school holiday church club in Echuca during 1965 where he met a deaf boy.
“This boy became my inspiration for working with deaf children,” Mr Muir said.
“I got hooked and deafness became a real fascination.
“I became involved with different aspects of the deaf world and trained to become a teacher for the deaf.
“There tends to be a stigma that deaf people are stupid but most deaf people are very intelligent.”
Having worked at a university in Japan, Mr Muir used his overseas connections to launch his own churches for the deaf in Inchon, Korea, beginning with just four children in 1979.
Deaf Action has since expanded to education and employment transition programs and assists deaf children in over 20 countries, some from kindergarten through to college.
Andrew Miller, International Operations Coordinator at Deaf Ministries International, said he wanted to nominate Mr Muir posthumously for the award for what he achieved and how he achieved it
“I knew Neville for 30 years and was a supporter of his for 20 years before that,“ Mr Miller said.
“He spent his whole life building a NGO, he built 180 churches for the deaf, 10 schools and employment opportunities for the deaf, always with a humble and self-deprecating sense of humour.
“He was a very compassionate and wonderful man. We joked he should be dubbed St Neville of Beaconsfield but it was less of a joke from us because he was so deserving of an honour like that.“
Mr Miller said Mr Muir was always well supported by his wife Lill and his children.
Brent Muir, Neville’s son, said the family was chuffed by the award.
“We are thrilled. It was a long time coming,“ he said.
“We feel honoured to have him recognised.“
Brent said his father was able to offer hope to hundreds of deaf and hard of hearing people around the world.
“Some of them thought they didn’t have a chance in life,“ Brent said.
“People would call him up from around the world, he was hugely in demand from the deaf community.“
