'Stronger Than Words': Deaf Community Of Gaza
Last month, Al Jazeera Media Network and Qatar Charity collaborated on a forum that focuses on the Arab World's deaf community as well as the challenges the community faces, with a special focus on Gaza as a case study.
The forum, which was composed of four sessions, was held on September 22, in order to mark the International Week of the Deaf, which is annually celebrated on the last week of September. The forum was kicked off with a 10-minute trailer of an hour-long documentary that Al-Jazeera hadn’t aired at the time. The trailer’s title is ‘Stronger than Words,’ and the documentary explores the daily lives of the deaf community in Gaza. The documentary was done before the latest Israeli offensive on Gaza in the summer. Statistically, the film reveals the existence of 15,000 deaf people across the entire Gaza strip. Furthermore, the film showcases the daily lives of the deaf community in Gaza, and their perseverance to have access to and continue their education despite their disability.
The first session has been marked by a special guest- Dr. Paul Larudee- founder of the Free Gaza Movement and Free Palestine Movement. Larudee, who helped stop an Israeli boat from docking at Oakland Port in California during the most recent atrocities on Gaza, explained: “I don’t believe in impossible. The word has changed the meaning for me!” Lastly, he called on Americans to change and speak up for oppressed Palestinians, and to be aware of the United States economic and political actions in the Middle East.
Further to the first session, which was also introduced by Al Jazeera’s website manager, Mohammad Khaleel, he announced that Al Jazeera had started a joint project with Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) that aims to use sports as an educational tool for the deaf community in Gaza.
The forum’s second session focused on the challenges presented in the case of the deaf community in the Arab world. Ali Al-Sinnari, Chairman of Qatar Cultural and Social Center for the Deaf, stated that members of the deaf community face discrimination, and that equal education for the non-hearing should be enhanced more in the Arab world. Hassan Al-Mojammar, a member of the Human Rights Department at Al Jazeera Network, said that when it comes to talking about the deaf community, mutual respect and understanding deem to be established.
Dr. Bassam Abu Hashish, from Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, joined the second session via a videoconference, and talked about publishing a paper that focuses on the deaf community in Palestine, specifically in the Gaza Strip. The paper, which also examines the social and economic effects on the deaf community (e.g. isolation, members of the deaf community marrying internally...etc.), reveals that 2-3% of Palestine’s population is consistent of fundamentally the deaf community (80,000-120,000 Palestinians). This number has increased over the years due to the voluminous airstrikes that Israel launched during its military operations over the last few years.
The last speaker for the second session was Dr. Mazen Al-Hajiri from Qatar, the first to perform a cochlear implant in Gaza in September 2009 to a mother, who lost her hearing sense when an airstrike hit the house adjacent to hers. Dr. Mazen explained that anyone with a hearing impairment should get a cochlear implant from an early age, and added that it is obligatory for a 1 or 2 year-old child in Europe with hearing impairment to get a cochlear implant, as the consequences for the guardians of that child will be met, which includes a very high monetary cost. The third session focused on the diagnosis of the deaf community’s reality in Gaza, while the fourth and final session featured futuristic NGO contribution and role in raising awareness and conducting projects pertinent to the deaf community issue, which featured Al-Fakhoora as one of them.
Digging deeper into the fourth session, it was announced that a future collaboration for Al Fakhoora would soon take place between Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children and Qatar Cultural and Social Center for the Deaf. Dahlia Maarouf, Advocacy Educational Specialist at Al-Fakhoora, explained the details of the future work regarding the deaf community in Gaza, as well as how the advocacy strategy tools implemented by Al Fakhoora, which includes the Virtual Majlis, can be synergized for the deaf community of Atfaluna. Finally, one of Al-Fakhoora’s students- Zuhdi El-Ifranji- a fifth year medical student at the Islamic University in Gaza, spoke about his experience at Al-Shifa Hospital working with Dr. Mads Gilbert during the recent war on Gaza. He added that hearing impairment advancements have a future in being implemented on-ground, with the support of the rest of the medical students of Gaza.
For more information on 'Stronger Than Words' documentary in English and Arabic, please visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRP-j1eM2Ck
