Pacific countries promote International Week of the Deaf

Transcript

Deaf associations around the pacific are gathering together with the World Federation of the Deaf to celebrate International Week of the Deaf.

This week they aim to raise awareness and understanding in local communities of deaf people and their rights.

Indira Moala reports.
One of the challenges deaf people face in the region is a lack of support and recognition within their local community. This year's International Week of the Deaf theme, Strengthening Human Diversity, is about recognising differences as possibilities and assets instead of disabilities that should be changed. In Samoa, a campaign run by the Senese organisation to raise awareness for deaf people, took place in local cafes. A blind senior officer from SENESE, Faaolo Utumapu, says the Sip and Sign morning tea campaign encouraged locals to use sign language to order their food or drink and interpreter stations were based at every cafe to help out.

FAAOLO UTUMAPU: What we hope to achieve with an activity like Sip and Sign, we just hope to contribute to what we hope for the public to realise that people who are deaf have just as much right to be included. And their language should be recognized in every day society, as everyone else.

In support of the cause, a sign language interpreter is featuring on all four TV stations to interpret the news for deaf people all week.

FAAOLO UTUMAPU: We think it would make people wake up and ask questions. You know, why are we signing the news? Because people who are deaf have the right to access information like everyone else. A lot of people here, they still rely on the media coverage to access their information and we think that it's only right that people who are deaf should also be given the same privilege.

In Fiji, the country's only deaf association will this Friday host deaf people from all over the country at a gathering where they can share experiences of their disability and strengthen ties within the community. Deaf youth advocate Krishneer Sen and president of Fiji's deaf association Leona Tamainai, speaking through sign language interpreter Gael Seru, explained their excitement over the event. They say one of the major challenges they face in Fiji is the communication barrier.

KRISHNEER SEN: There's a big lack of sign language interpreters in Fiji as well as advanced communication technology for the deaf. And for the government to recognise the deaf community as a minority group. So our language is sign language and that is an authentic language, unique in its own way.

Mr Sen believes the country's deaf organisation has helped to make a lot of positive changes so far.

KRISHNEER SEN: In Fiji we've achieved a lot of things and deaf students are put in mainstream schools and they're at the universities as well as other tertiary institutions. So we have inclusive education with the provision of the sign language interpreters. And the Fiji constitution includes the provision of sign language interpreters.

Deaf youth advocate in Fiji, Krishneer Sen, says he will continue advocating for sign language to become an official language in Fiji.