‘Disability law will help deaf women, others’

What do you think are the challenges facing deaf women in the country?The challenges are many. The major one is lack of awareness. Deafness is a hidden disability. So awareness creation and advocacy needs to be done. We need funds to continue to advocate. We have no support from anywhere else and have been supporting […]

What do you think are the challenges facing deaf women in the country?
The challenges are many. The major one is lack of awareness. Deafness is a hidden disability. So awareness creation and advocacy needs to be done. We need funds to continue to advocate.
We have no support from anywhere else and have been supporting and encouraging one another to be educated and develop ourselves. As wives we don’t need to be dependent , or be dependent on our parents as deaf people.  We need to be independent through going further in our education or learning skills.
We can study any course of our choice in the university and become graduates because we have the spirit of ‘we can’  as we are the ones that can determine that we can’t be beggars.
It is the choice of the deaf people you see begging about to beg. Life is full of choices. If you choose to be successful you will work hard and together with prayer will be successful.
We are encouraging deaf women to be good mothers not to run away from marriage or challenges in life.
Another major challenge is poverty. Many of us are graduates but no work for us.
In the area of health, going to the hospital is not easy for a deaf person. Starting from the card station, the deaf person cannot sit comfortably because even if you call their names till tomorrow they can’t hear their names.
How can they then be able to see the doctor at the right time? They will continue to sit at the card station. Even going in for treatment is not easy because of  the communication barrier. Many doctors do not know how to communicate with the deaf whether male or female alike. So how do we tell them what is happening in our body? We need interpreters even at the police station or anywhere we go. We need to know what is happening so we ask that interpreters should be everywhere.
There is also the issue of accessibility. The accessibility of the deaf person is different from the accessibility of someone on wheel chair or the blind. What the deaf person needs is to be able to communicate because we can enter anywhere. We are not physically challenged, all we need is an interpreter.
 On television there is no news caption for the deaf. So the newspaper is our best friend because with good education many of us can read.
The use of phone and ICT is where we have another challenge. Many of us are not knowledgeable enough to handle the computer. We need training, government should organise trainings for us so that we can be fully part of the society.
We call on President Goodluck Jonathan to please sign the disability bill into law. All we need now is presidential assent. Let him do it as a fatherly or presidential gift to the more than 22.5 million people living with disabilities in Nigeria.
Because if he leaves without doing it, all our efforts ever since will be fruitless and we need to start all over again which is not fair to us.

What inspired you into establishing the Deaf women Association of Nigeria?
It was established because  deaf women are voiceless and can’t defend themselves. I saw many things getting wrong with them and believe that God who called me to be among deaf people and still left me with my voice wants me to do something.
I also believe one should make a change in whatever situation one finds oneself. My first son became deaf at the age of  three years so  from the way I trained him and he came out successfully, I believe I can use my wealth of experience as a mother and grandmother to help.
Also I got motivated to establish it when I traveled for a conference of deaf leaders in 2001. A deaf women who is a professor in America asked the leaders of the deaf community in Nigeria if there is an  association for deaf women alone in Nigeria. We have national association of the deaf and also have state branches but there was no  group for deaf women alone.
With the idea and encouragement the woman gave me, I felt there was a gap I should fill . I gathered women together and from September 2001 we started as a small group in Lagos. The association has now grown from state to state.

What is your message to deaf women?
We should be united because without it we cannot achieve much. With unity those who are a bit or very successful can assist the less privileged ones in our midst. We should be our sister’s keepers by helping others to grow and know that hard work does not fail.  Deaf women don’t need to beg to live, it depends on the choice they make.