Every year during the third week of September, Uganda joins the rest of the world to commemorate the international deaf awareness week.
There is going to be a deliberate move to have sign language included in all public service activities.
This according to Hellen Asamo, the state minister of gender in charge of disability affairs, will be done through recruitment of sign language interpreters at key points where deaf people need these services but also conduct on-job training for key government sectors like health, judiciary, police, community development among others.
The ministry is also currently reviewing the national policy on disability to adopt the Uganda Sign language dictionary as the key document to be applied in communication.
To fulfill the economic empowerment aspirations of persons with disabilities, the ministry of gender is also currently implementing the national special grant for persons with disabilities across the country. This grant is aimed at creating employment and income-generating activities for persons with disabilities including those who are deaf, their caregivers, and the parents of children with disabilities.
“This fund is demand-driven and targets groups of persons with disabilities between 5-15 persons and the maximum amount provided for each group is sh5m,” Asamo said.
She explained that the fund is an addition to the special grant for persons with disabilities which government has been implementing since the financial year 2009/10 and is sent to the districts as part of the social sector development grant. This grant can be accessed at district level.
She made these remarks at the Uganda Media Centre on Tuesday, ahead of the deaf awareness week.
Every year during the third week of September, Uganda joins the rest of the world to commemorate the international deaf awareness week.
This week-long commemoration is meant to create awareness in the communities on the rights and needs of deaf persons.
The week is further aimed at increasing unity among the deaf community and their families, to raise awareness and fight stigma and discrimination against the deaf persons within their communities and the entire society.
The theme for this year is “Celebrating thriving deaf communities: We sign for human rights”
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the percentage of persons with hearing impairment is 3.1% of the total percentage of persons with disabilities which is 12.4%. This is a big percentage of our population that cannot be ignored.
