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Description
People with deafblindness (PwDB) in Romania are an extremely vulnerable group, who are marginalized, isolated, affected by inequalities and social exclusion. The two impairments, visual and hearing, raises barriers in accessing services of all kinds, given the major difficulties in communication, orientation and mobility, accessing information, as well as the lack of interpreters specialized in deafblindness (DB). According to international estimations from 2018, the prevalence of DB is of 0.2-2% of the population, meaning between 40,000 – 400,000 people affected in Romania. Over time, Sense International Romania has worked with more than 500 children, young people and adults with DB. Despite being recognized in legislation, DB continues to be insufficiently known and understood, a relevant example in this sense being the small number of people with DB in official statistics: 77.
The project aims to:
- lay the groundwork and increase the capacity of 40 people with DB to become a voice capable to fight for their rights, through meetings meant to empower them and provide them with the tools for self-representation, aiming at establishing a representative association of people with DB;
- ensure their access to the services they need, through training of a group of 20 sign language interpreters to specialize in DB (20% of the total number of authorized interpreters in Romania), a field that interpreters currently have little or no knowledge of at all.
In parallel, the project will increase the level of awareness, though national campaigns dedicated to improved knowledge and understanding of DB.
In partnership with Sense International UK and collaborating with the World Federation for the Deafblind (Norway), as well as other institutions and organizations, Sense International Romania will support PwDB to have a voice, to be seen and heard. Finally, they will gain the capacity to advocate for the social inclusion of the entire group of PwDB in Romania.