News
HST Collects relevant news from a variety of sources, for your convenience. Select a story from below, or use our search feature to find stories of interest.

For Africa's Deaf and Blind, AIDS Is an Unknown Language
2004-04-16

In Africa, disabled people are often shunned. Discrimination against the disabled takes numerous forms: AIDS education seminars are often held in buildings that do not have wheelchair access deaf people, many of whom are not literate in English or Swahili, are turned away from HIV testing centers because no one can communicate with them and education campaigns on radio or television do not help those who cannot see or hear them.

Although the problem extends beyond Africa, deaf and blind people on the AIDS-ravaged continent have a hard time learning about prevention and gaining access to treatment for the disease. AIDS is talked about so much in your world, said Dominic O.Majiwa, a regional director for Africa at the World Federation of the Deaf. Hearing people know all about it. But we deaf people often don't get the information.

In Africa, disabled people are often shunned. Discrimination against the disabled takes numerous forms: AIDS education seminars are often held in buildings that do not have wheelchair access deaf people, many of whom are not literate in English or Swahili, are turned away from HIV testing centers because no one can communicate with them and education campaigns on radio or television do not help those who cannot see or hear them.

A recent commercial aimed at disabled people featured Susan Mwikali, the first runner-up in a Kenyan beauty pageant for disabled women. Sitting beside Lucy Kibaki,Kenya's first lady, Mwikali used sign language to urge people to follow her lead and use condoms.Anybody can get AIDS, she said. The deaf, the blind, the crippled, we must all protect ourselves. The commercial, however, has not reached many. TV stations are demanding 1,000 to air it and refuse to broadcast it as a public service announcement. Organizers of Miss Disability Kenya do not have the funds to pay for its broadcast.

Majiwa said he and other advocates received money from the Kenyan government last year to hold AIDS seminars for disabled people and to begin printing brochures featuring sign language. The advocates, with financial support from CDC, have set up an HIV testing center specifically for the deaf in Kenya, one of the first in Africa.

Since its opening, more than 500 people have come in for testing and treatment, and no one is turned away.-(Marc Lacey, New York Times (03.28.04)

Keywords	This Item is associated with the Following Keywords: HIV/AIDS.
You Can Comment on this Item, or View other people's Comments
Easy Print  Email to a friend

	Related News
	Health department deaf to ideas, say private hospitals (2008-06-13) Radio Journalist (2005-11-04) Children's courts to cater for special needs (2005-12-21) Intellectual disability month (2006-03-02) South Africa: Children TV series introduces HIV positive puppet (2002-09-18)

	Related Publications
	Assistive Devices in KwaZulu-Natal - Making the service more accessible, affordable and appropriate (2001-05-03) Disability in South Africa (2000-04-17) Second report of research into assistive devices (2003-09-18) Scaling up antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings: Treatment guidelines for a public health approach (2004-03-31) Delivering Antiretroviral therapy in Resource-constrained Settings: lessons from Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda (2005-08-31)

	Related Health Statistics
	AIDS sick (number of people with AIDS-defining conditions) (2005-04-20) HIV prevalence (%) (antenatal) (2004-10-04) Education level: percentage of population 20 years and older with no schooling (2004-05-21) Population (2004-10-04) AIDS orphans (2005-04-20)

	Related Events
	International HIV/AIDS Treatment Education and Advocacy Summit (2000-03-13) International Day of Disabled persons (2005-12-03) Supporting Deaf People online conference (2005-03-10) Promoting the resilience of individuals with intellectual disability in Africa (2001-10-03) 2005 AIDS Impact Conference (2005-04-04)

	Related links
	AIDS Law Project World AIDS Day Red Ribbon Mindset Health Health Global Access Project Coalition

	Related Content
	Treatment Monitor: Human and Socio-Economic Rights (2008-02-14) The Community Development Programme (2004-04-07) Treatment Monitor: Sexual and Reproductive Intentions (2008-02-14) ISDS Site: Alfred Nzo District (2004-05-10) Summary Bulletin 10 (August) - DHS-LG Discussion List (2004-07-16)