Description
The project addresses the challenges faced by unemployed people with hearing disability in the town of Targovishte (social isolation, lack of communication with the outside world). The project aims at supporting them to develop skills through a series of trainings. First, the project team will organize the training of 18 people with hearing disability. The trainers will attend a short sign language training to communicate with the trainees. Second, these 18 people will be trained in computer literacy, working with Microsoft Word, Power Point and Corel Draw and photography. Third, they will take photos to be presented during a 3-day photo exhibition. Fourth, a round table will be organized on the challenges of people with hearing disability. The event will be attended by the stakeholders (decision-makers, NFOs, the media). The project will benefit people with hearing disability in Targovishte, the local community and local decision-makers.
Summary of project results
The project was needed considering the almost non-existent initiatives for people with hearing impairments which leaves such people in social isolation and alienation from social life in a closed group. The direct beneficiaries were 18 people with hearing impairments from Targovishte Municipality. They were involved at the stage of planning the project and project philosophy is to a great extent theirs. The project aimed at communication with the surrounding world via photography. The project also aimed at boosting the knowledge and skills of the target group by means of module-based training. The project had beneficial impact on the target group. The participants were quite willing and they achieved very good results: they enriched their general background, learned new words and phrases, recalled forgotten ones, as the limitations of the group inevitably limit communication; they met new people and representatives of the institutions. The local community and the local institutions monitoring the project activities and represented at the round table on people with impaired hearing became convinced that with a little support the target group had the potential to achieve a lot and be useful to themselves and the community. The business incubator in Targovishte is willing to continue its work with the target group after the end of the project to improve their social status by taking steps for their integration on the labour market. The people with impaired hearing were directly involved in the organization of the training courses and the photo exhibition. For more information, see:
www.bctargovishte.org
Summary of bilateral results