Bengaluru 4th July 2016: Sense International India is holding a 4 day workshop for the Deafblind children and their parents to educate them on “Self Development - Understanding Sexuality, Social and Emotional needs”. Executive Director – Sense India – Mr Akhil S Paul along with Mr Biju Mathew and Ms. Veena Lakhumalani a social development consultant inaugurated the workshop this morning.
Mr Akhil Paul, says, “ Deafblindness is a unique disability and these people cannot benefit from workshops held separately for the deaf and the blind. In 1997 we started training children, Now they are all young adults. We want to educate them about self development, sexuality and other things. While others can learn these things through books and other media, these people have to be told about I”.
Sense international India has been actively engaging with persons with deafblindness to promote their comprehensive development and helping them to be an active and contributing member of the society. We are reaching out to more than 71,500 deafblind people all over India. ‘Udaan’ is a network of adults with deafblindness with more than 150 registered members and selected members from this group will be participating in the proposed training.
Over the years Sense International India has been identifying the training need areas of young adults with deafblindness and addressing them. Based on feedback from previous trainings there is felt need for self development by young adults with deafblindness through better understanding of their own sexuality, social and emotional needs. The proposed next level training aims to build their confidence through interactive sessions on understanding self needs and enhancing skills for better understanding of sexuality, sex education, communication, orientation, mobility and activities of daily living. This will be helpful for them to manage interpersonal relations and engage in some gainful employment.
In recent times it has been observed that sexuality, emotional and social well being is one of the important factors in normal development of everyone’s life. Sexual, emotional and social distress/disconnect may lead to isolation. Deafblind population is very much vulnerable to abuse due to sexual, emotional and social disconnect. The need for personal understanding and professional grooming is much needed to get recognized in the world. This will help individuals with deafblindness to make way for positive and dignified life at home, work place and in community at large. Through the proposed training we aim to achieve this goal by providing skill based training to selected group of young adult with deafblindness from all over the country. In the first phase, the training will be held for the participants from south and west region and in the second phase for participants from north, east and north east region. This will provide them with an opportunity to present self effectively and represent deafblind people in the community. It will also build their confidence in this professional world and make them stand high and tall.
About the Participants
Participants of this workshop are ‘Udaan’ network members. Some of them are independent in taking care of their daily needs while others require some assistance. Some of them are
engaged in suitable vocation whereas others are undergoing vocational training. Some of them travel independently and represent on various forums. It’s a diverse group of participants with different modes of communication, supported by trained professionals.
Expected number of participants: 25 adults with deafblindness along with their escorts (50 Inclusive of escorts)
Age group: 18- 35 yrs (male and female)
Faculty: Sense India training team members and Ms. Veena Lakhumalani a social development consultant
Main Objectives of the training:
· To build good understanding of sexuality, social and emotional needs of self
· To enhance communication, orientation, mobility and ADL skills
· To build capacity to manage interpersonal relations
· To build confidence to engage in employment
Outcomes:
After the training, participants will be able to-
· Understand their own sexuality, social and emotional needs
· Express and communicate their needs without any hesitation
· Choose employment opportunities with better communication, mobility and interpersonal relations
Methodology:
· The training will be conducted using a Participatory approach – Role plays, Case study analysis, presentations and group activities.
Language: Hindi/English sign language and tactile sign language interpretation along with other local languages With the untiring efforts of Sense India and its 57 partner organisation in 23 states of the country almost 71,500 children and adults with deafblindness are receiving services and are recognized, respected equally and enjoying their rights in the society. Not only from a specific part of the nation, persons with deafblindness from east-west, north-south, urban to remote villages are getting services without any discrimination of religion, caste, creed, economic status.
Sense India aims to ensure that all the special educators and CBR workers working with children and adults with deafblindness should have the in-depth knowledge about deafblindness and the skills required to communicate in one to one basis. To ensure such services and upgrade their skills Sense India is organizing national level workshops, trainings and conferences for the special educators, caretakers and parents on a regular basis. It has also published many books and information materials covering all the important areas of deafblindness in major languages spoken in India.
Aims- Reaching out to more persons to have better communication system with persons with deafblindness in India
Teaching or communicating with children or adults with deafblindness is not an easy task. If we say, even identifying the best and suitable mode of communication is a puzzling task is not wrong. However, one of the most common modes of communication used with persons with deafblindness is sign language in the form of tactile sign language. Sign language plays an important role in the life of persons with deafblindness and sighted- hearing world. It creates an opportunity to bridge both persons with deafblindness and sighted- hearing world and provides a common platform to communicate and understand each other. Sign language helps individuals to express their desires, feelings and thoughts with others. Though it is a most essential mode of communication, it is observed that very less special educators, CBR workers, parents and family members are aware of using the same. We could barely count the number of persons who knows to use sign language.
At present, Talking Hands is the most commonly used sign language system in the field of deafblindness. It is based on a single hand signing system and it is comprised of various signs mostly from American Sign Language, Indian sign language and few local signs from different parts of the country. As of now, there are Three Training Institutes in the country for diploma on deafblindness and all are following the same signing system. Even special educators, CBR workers, parents and persons with deafblindness themselves are following the same sign language. The two dimensional pictorial signs in the book is not easy for many of the stake holders to comprehend. Hence, as per the need Sense India is proposing to convert the two dimensional pictorial sign system into a sign language video film. The sign language video film will be in the form of compact disc targeting the special educators, professionals, parents, family members, persons with deafblindness & other disabilities and mass public as a whole. While making the video many aspects like contrast, clutter free background, good lighting, large print and medium paced action are kept in mind. Each sign will appear with large printed words written in English and Hindi languages followed by the voice over.
Expectation from the project
By the end of 2016 we expect that all the people who are working with persons with deafblindness will be able to learn and use the sign language system “Talking Hands” using the sign language pendrive developed by Sense India. One set of pendrive would be given to all the partner organisation of Sense International India free of cost. And the remaining copies will be distributed to parents, schools, institutes, colleges and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. We also believe that in future all persons with deafblindness would get an interpreter with rich knowledge of sign language.