Africanews
Disability is not inability. Deaf people are as resourceful as any other person given their human rights rather than be treated as a minority group. The Kenya National Association of the deaf (KNAD) is out on a public campign to encourage companies to hire more deaf people and calling friends of the deaf to join in their sruggle for human rights and justice. |
One day a partially deaf boy came home from school with a note. It suggested that his parents take him out of school. The note said that the boy was "too stupid to learn." When the boy's mother read the note, she said, "my son Tom isn't 'too stupid to learn ,' I'll teach him myself."When Tom died many years later, the people of that nation paid tribute to him by turning off the nation's lights, which he had invented, for one full minute.
Thomas Edison invented not only the light bulb we read by , but also the motion picture we watch and the record player we listen to, He has over one thousand patents to his credit.
The deaf have the same social needs just as ordinary people:- the need to belong to some one and something; the need to participate, hence to contribute to the general and economic development of the community and the society they belong to. In Kenya, as in many African countries there are still obstacles preventing deaf persons from exercising their rights and freedoms hence making it difficult for them to participate fully in the country's development. Today the deaf people in Kenya are having a harder time meeting their needs for survival than they were ten years ago.
There has been far too little practical action to improve the living conditions of deaf. Their needs are still often treated separately and in a discriminatory manner. We still have situations in Kenya, where the vast majority of deaf persons live in isolation and neglect, without any assistance whatsoever. "The question as to why a quarter of the natural resources in Kenya cannot be allocated to the deaf people remains a mystery to us" Susan Kirima, an Information Officer with KNAD wonders.
To counter some of these problems, The Kenya National Association of the Deaf (KNAD) a voluntary Charitable organisation formed in April 1987 by a group of indigenous deaf Kenyans has done a remakable job in improving the lives of the deaf persons in Kenya. The Organisation has initiated 11 affiliated branches around the country. The branches run programmes that are decentralised, non- institutional and community based rehabilitation programmes.
The Regional Director of World Federation for the Deaf (WFD) in Eastern and Central Africa, Mr. Dominic Majiwa, a deaf, explains through an interpreter that "in Kenya it is estimated that out of 2.5 million disabled people, 625, 000 are deaf."
The KNAD Educational committee held its first meeting in may 1995. One of its major tasks was to try to have qualified deaf people admitted to teacher training colleges. The committee's effort bore fruits when 2 deaf persons were admitted to Machakos Teachers Training college. The committee is currently examining the appropriateness and scope of the current teaching methodologies in schools for the deaf. It was reported that the country has only 38 primary schools offering special education for the deaf and only four secondary schools.
Mr. Peter Wango Opany, the KNAD Executive Director told a parents and teachers meeting of Rev. Charles Muhoro Secondary school for the Deaf in Nyeri that KNAD will continue campaigning for more deaf people to join teacher training colleges so that trained deaf teachers can gradually influence major policy changes in deaf education and take part in the running of schools for the deaf.
The Rev. Muhoro is Known to be one of the excellent academic oriented secondary schools for the deaf in Kenya. It was established in 1990 and offers integrated programmes for deaf and non-deaf students. One of it's former students has gained admission to the Jomo Kenyatta University College of Agriculture & Technology.
The University of Nairobi and the University of Stockholm, Sweden are playing a major role in working together with KNAD in the on-going three year Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) research project. Mr. Washington Akaranga is a deaf Researcher in the KSL project cum instructor. He commends that "What the two Universities are doing gains them credit. It is a challenge to other local Universities to fully and unconditionally join in this effort" . The Local Universities have always been challenged that they generally remain in ivory towers ignoring the needs of the citizens. That they have done little in trying to tackle the problems of the deaf persons in curriculum development, accordingly the deaf persons have been marginalised as far as University education is concerned.
Employment opportunities for the deaf persons in Kenya are also limited and consequently the ability of deaf persons to achieve self fulfillment and personal dignity is seriously undermined. It is encouraging that more and more deaf persons are taking up the challenge of starting their own businesses. This turn of events is a reflection of the realities of the day, as there are very few jobs in the labour market. Again, at the onset of being deaf, a person's right to work is interfered with, due to societal attitudes towards the deaf people. Catherine Wambui, 25, is a secretary and an excellent interpreter in Kenyan Sign language working at KNAD head office. "The ability to communicate with everybody is very important, if all of us would be able to communicate with the deaf, all those prejudices we have towards them would be cleared. There is a social stigma which we must fight, That being deaf is necessarily a handicap. This is a wrong assumption. One may be deaf so what! he may make a most efficient musician, teacher, or computer wizard given the basic opportunity to unfold his full potential." She says.
Mr. Bathlomew Agengo KNAD's Information Officer explains that, "the public's attitude towards the deaf should be more positive, they should not be given more sympathy than they deserve. However, they need more positive action towards their attempt to overcome and cope with the environment so as to meet the demands of life just like all the other citizens".
In addition there is very little support service to assist either the employers of deaf or the employees in such areas as needs assessment, work adaptation, and counselling. This constitute denial of opportunity to deaf persons to exercise their right to work and self fulfillment.
Another alternative to alleviate the problem of unemployment among the deaf as Mr. Agengo points out is that, "the deaf need to be equipped with the necessary skills required in the performance of tasks before them if they are to compete favourably with hearing workers in a labour market which is already saturated."
KNADs Social Welfare department Mr. Simon Angira reported in the KNAD Newsletter, June, 1996 that deaf people are now coming to the social welfare office seeking advice on types of viable businesses, probable sources of financing, strategic business locations, licensing procedures and marketing strategies.
This is the era of gender in development. Men and women working in partnership. KNADs Women Wing (DWW)addresses the main issues of deaf women in their development agendas. It is frustrating that "deaf women are stigmatised by the society when they drop out of school, become single parents or fail to secure jobs." Judith Olesia, Coordinator,(DWW) said KNAD Newsletter,June 1996.
There is no database available on the number of deaf women in Kenya how they are coping in the social, political and economic life. Available data show that deaf women in Kenya's remote rural areas lack access to information and continuing education which is necessary to overcome their social and economic handles. Thus, DWW is set to spearhead women's social and economic development activities as well as assisting women self -help groups.
Political empowerment is a significant tool towards deaf women's self - actualization. Self-help groups have been found to offer an important forum for political expression and empowerment.
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PeaceLink 1996