Employment and inclusion of rural girls with hearing impairments

Women with hearing disabilities from rural areas receive training and education to ensure their participation in the job market. Informing families and communities about the needs and issues of these women leads to greater understanding and inclusion, which in turn helps to empower them economically and socially.

Problems Targeted

Girls with hearing impairments do not have access to an education that would ensure them a dignified life, and often they do not have the right to learn unified Yemeni sign language. Thus, they cannot communicate with others or express their needs and opinions.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

Women are trained and educated to generate a steady income in such careers as hairdressing, engraving, handicrafts, knitting, and sewing. In addition to capacity-building, Al Saeeda Association advocates with local decision-makers to highlight the issues of persons with hearing impairments and to actively promote schools that integrate them. The project is executed by women who themselves have a hearing impairment, and this peer-to-peer support offers positive role models for young girls. Even the sign language classes are taught by the hearing impaired.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

There is a great demand and need for sign language training and the teaching of professional careers. Currently, the project faces several obstacles to its growth, including a lack of sewing machines, insufficient transportation for trainees, a poor supply of electricity, and too little space, among others.

Pictures

In Haifan, Taiz, a deaf trainer teaches some 30 women with hearing impairments how to sign.