Deaf hit by Texting Ban
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The government of the Democratic Rebublic of Congo has banned SMS messages more than a week ago to preserve "public order" following rows over elections. President Joseph Kabila was declared the winner, but his main rival, Etienne Tshisekedi, rejected the result. Congo is havign its second set of electons since the 1998-2003 war which claimed about four million lives.
There are a around 1.4 million deaf people in DR Congo, which is recovering from years of conflict.
"Since 3 December, we've been unhappy," said Pastor Kisangala, the deaf community's religious minister in the capital, Kinshasa."We're finding it very hard to communicate. All our communications used to go through SMS messages," he says.
The measure means deaf Congolese are now unable to communicate.
"Our members are scattered across the city, some are ill in hospital, others are dying. Without communication we don't even know about it," Mr Kisangala said.
"Few of them have been coming here, whereas with text messages, many used to come to church here on a Sunday."
In Congo very few Deaf have access to Computer or email so texting is very important.
Mr Mwanza says deaf people are considering what they should do to get the ban lifted. "Let's enforce democracy and free up SMS messaging," he said. "If it continues, we may stage a protest march."
Euro crisis impacts Greek Deaf
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GREECE: Deaf Protest Service Cuts
Evanthia Plakoura’s life recently became a lot more complicated. Conversations with her boss switched to email only. Visits to the doctor require additional planning.
“It’s like someone flicked a switch and turned off your voice,” said Plakoura, a deaf woman who works at the Education Ministry.
Plakoura joined some 2,000 disabled demonstrators at a rally in central Athens this week to protest sweeping benefit cuts imposed in Greece’s economic crisis that have deprived her of sign-language translation.
In August, a five-year-old program providing deaf people with interpreters was suspended after the government abruptly cut its funding to less than half. Overnight, 15,000 deaf people around Greece were left without help to report a crime to the police, rent a house or go to a job interview.
Funding cuts have opened up gaps across welfare services, with slashed services and longer waiting times for vulnerable groups including the blind, recovering organ-transplant patients, autistic children, and paraplegics in need of physiotherapy.
“This program is very important to us. It’s our bridge to the outside world and it’s vital for our education,” Plakoura said in sign language, her speech relayed by one of the very translators whose help is being cut off.
“People have gone back to writing things down, or taking a relative, but it’s not the same thing,” she said. “It makes things very difficult for us, and especially for elderly deaf people.”
The axed program is the latest casualty of Greece’s draconian austerity measures that have battered social services as demand for help by the recession-hit public increases.
Independent welfare programs that rely on grants from the state offer a tempting target to a government fighting the threat of bankruptcy. Unlike state-run programs, which enjoy strong legal protections, the government can simply turn off the money taps.
As a result, independent programs to assist the disabled, the elderly, psychiatric patients and recovering drug users have all suffered steep cuts, occasionally with dramatic consequences.
National Association of the Deaf in Greece, is struggling to keep their 60-member network of interpreters together, hoping to restart the program sometime next year.“Since the program was suspended, it’s been really chaotic,” he said. “Some people can pay for interpreters on occasion, but others have simply postponed their tasks forever.”
Gargalis, who is deaf, spends his working day in hectic silence: swiftly thumbing text messages on his cell phone, poring over fax requests from around Greece, and making video calls over the Internet.
His interpreters program started with an annual state grant of euro250,000 ($333,200) in 2006; that was steadily reduced to euro180,000 ($240,000) this year, before being suddenly slashed to euro80,000 ($106,600) in August.
“We were immediately over-budget and had to suspend the program. And even then, interpreters were left unpaid for two months of work,” said Gargalis.
At previous funding levels, deaf people were offered 25 hours a year with interpreters. If the program is restarted next year, they will receive no more than 10 hours, Gargalis said.
“The amount of money we are asking for is laughable,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “This is a matter of survival for us.”
Interpreters for the deaf need six years of training to get their license, and are paid below-minimum wage to crisscross Greek cities daily and provide help communicating.
“People generally become interpreters because they are interested in the subject,” registered interpreter Costas Christodoulakos said.
“Now they are obliged to look for other work and take on other commitments, often unrelated to their interpreting jobs,” he said. “What else can they do?”
Greece’s debt-shackled economy has been kept alive by international rescue loans for the past 19 months, and creditors are pressing for more aggressive spending cuts, as the Socialist government continues to miss deficit-cutting targets and heads into a fourth year of recession in 2012.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos promised this week to submit protesters’ demands to the country’s new prime minister, and invite disabled groups to join negotiations on a major new tax code due to take effect next year.
Health care is facing major cuts this year — down from euro7 billion originally planned to euro5.6 billion ($9.4 billion to $7.5 billion), excluding state insurance subsidies.
Since the debt crisis started in late 2009, store closures have exceeded 20 percent in some commercial parts of Athens, while more than 275,000 people have lost their jobs nationwide, the vast majority in the private sector, pushing the unemployment rate to more than 16 percent.
“The unemployment rate among disabled people is normally more than double the national average … so there is an urgent need for disabled people to be protected (from the cuts),” Yiannis Vardakastanis, leader of the National Confederation of Disabled People, said in an interview.
“The effects of the initial (government spending) cuts were not immediately obvious. But the cuts being made now have brought parts of the care system to a state of near-collapse.”
Degree in British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreting Launched
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The first British Sign Language (BSL) interpreting degree in Scotland has been launched at Heriot-Watt’s School of Management & Languages with the support of funding from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
We are placing BSL squarely alongside other modern languages within a programme structure that has for over 40 years been producing translators and interpreters to work at the highest international standards
Professor Graham Turner, Chair of Interpreting & Translation StudiesUnique new degree programmes
The degree is the only one in the UK on which students will graduate as fully qualified and accredited BSL/English interpreters upon completion. This means they can start working anywhere in the UK straight away, without the need for further training. With 60,000 Deaf people in the UK and a national shortage of qualified BSL interpreters the degree could make a considerable contribution to the Deaf community, as well as offering good employment prospects to graduates.
Leading centre in sign language studies
The graduates of this course will have a potentially great positive impact on access to services for Deaf people
Mark Batho, Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding CouncilHeriot-Watt has over a decade of involvement in working with the signing community and has an established profile as one of the UK's leading centres in sign language studies. The SFC funding of £744,192 over six years will build on Scottish Government’s investment in BSL. Students, who do not need previous BSL experience, can study BSL (plus English) as their only language or BSL in combination with other European languages (French, German or Spanish). The programmes include BSL language immersion placements with the Deaf community in third year and work experience placements in fourth year.
Internationally-renowned programmes
Professor Graham Turner, Chair of Interpreting and Translation Studies at Heriot-Watt University, said: "Access to sign language interpreters can change the lives of Deaf people, from deaf children hungry to learn at school, to employees whose contribution to the economic life of the country can be greatly enhanced.
"What is unique about our BSL work," said Professor Turner, "is that it takes place within an internationally-renowned Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies. That means we are placing BSL squarely alongside other modern languages within a programme structure that has for over 40 years been producing translators and interpreters to work at the highest international standards.”
Mark Batho, Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council, said: “We are pleased to support the Scottish Government’s ambition for BSL to become a modern language, creating highly employable graduates with in-demand skills. The graduates of this course will have a potentially great positive impact on access to services for Deaf people.”
Scholarships & bursaries for 2012 entry
A range of scholarships and bursaries is available to assist with access to the programme for students from anywhere in the UK. Applications to the new BSL programme for September 2012 entry are now being accepted.
Deaf Volunteers wanted for Sri Lanka
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In January 2012, a group of deaf volunteers from the UK, will be travelling to Sri Lanka to volunteer at Deaf Schools and Special Needs centres. This placement is being organised by the volunteer organisation, SL Volunteers.
From November 2011, the volunteers will begin learning Sri Lankan Sign Language at the SL Volunteers office in London. The lessons are run by Sophie Allen, a BSL sign language interpreter, who has been volunteering at deaf schools in Sri Lanka since 2001, and is fluent in sri lankan sign language. Sophie has great love for Sri Lanka and is dedicating her time to ensure that the team are adequately trained before they arrive.
Aliya Gulamani, a recent graduate from Goldsmiths Uni will be joining the team, ‘Being profoundly deaf myself I am lucky to have had access to an excellent education in the UK, and I believe that everyone, deaf or hearing deserves the right to an education’.
The Volunteers will be assisting staff at a Deaf school, in Colombo and the staff have specifically asked SL Volunteers to support the older children with their computing skills to increase their chances of securing employment when they leave the school.
This project follows on from the already established SL Volunteers teaching projects, that offer free-spoken English lessons to people in Sri Lanka that would otherwise not have the opportunity. Since being established in May 2010, SL Volunteers has sent over 100 volunteers from the UK, to teach English in Orphanges and Youth centres.
SL Volunteers are looking for more volunteers to join the team, both deaf or hearing people who have an interest in teaching or working with people with Special Needs. Applications for the January projects are still open.
Aliya: “This trip has a personal significance for me as I want to pass the message on. The message that, even with deafness you can be anything and you can do anything you wish for the world is yours”
More info on their website here
Doreen Woodford Funeral.
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Doreen Woodford, founder of the Woodford Foundation, passed away on 31st December.
The Woodford Foundation works in income-poor countries to help deaf children access education and training.
Doreen has had 40 years experience in the education of deaf children. She began her career with Barnardo Childcare and at the Liverpool School for the Deaf. Following her degree and teacher training at the University of Manchester, Doreen taught at schools in Margate, Liverpool, Malvern and London.
When she retired from full-time employment she began to work to improve the education of deaf children across the world. With a number of other professionals from the field of assistance for the deaf, she founded the Woodford Foundation in 2004. The charity has grown, it now works in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania and employs three staff at its Shrewsbury office.
Doreen retired from the foundation a year ago but her work will be remembered by many.
Doreen's funeral will be Thursday 19th. January 12:30pm in Much Wenlock Parish Church. Burial will be in Much Wenlock No flowers but collection for the British Deaf History Society.