Manama, April 19 (BNA): Bahrain joins the Arab world in celebrating its 48th anniversaryy The Arab Deaf Week under the slogan “The importance of modern technology in raising awareness of the dead and improving their culture.”
The Arab Deaf Week, which was celebrated during the last week of April every year, aims to spread awareness of the importance of sign language to contribute to the integration of deaf people into their communities.
It also seeks to educate society about the reality of the deaf, especially children, and the need to help people with hearing disabilities to learn, rehabilitate, and integrate educationally, socially, and economically.
On this occasion, the Minister of Social Development, Osama bin Ahmed Khalaf Al-Asfoor, affirmed that people with hearing disabilities receive great attention from all relevant authorities.
He stressed the keenness of the government and society to benefit from the Arab Deaf Week as an annual occasion to highlight the rights of people with hearing and speech disabilities and the challenges they face.
He said that the goal is to mobilize all kinds of support, rehabilitation and empowerment for them in order to enhance their effective and positive role in comprehensive and sustainable social and economic development.
In this regard, he stressed the importance of harnessing technologies to remove the obstacles they face and building bridges of communication with them through community partnership, allowing them to live their lives normally and obtain their rights to education, work and social life. Because they are an important and effective part of society.
He affirmed the Ministry of Social Development’s relentless endeavor to increase the number of services and programs provided to the deaf, in line with the general principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which emphasized the right to participate in cultural, social and educational activities. Life and leisure activities.
He stressed that the Ministry of Social Development sought to achieve a quantum leap in the services it provides to the deaf, through the Sheikhan Al-Farsi Center for Comprehensive Communication, which specializes in rehabilitating and educating people with hearing disabilities and enabling them to complete and develop basic educational competencies in the early stages to facilitate their integration into the Ministry of Education.
He added that the center prepares beneficiaries for full and comprehensive integration into a healthy educational environment, as a civilized step that placed the Kingdom among the countries with pioneering and successful experiences in the actual integration of persons with disabilities.
He emphasized that the Law on the Care, Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities contributed to enabling people with disabilities, including the hearing impaired, to live a normal and independent life, by disbursing a monthly allowance to more than 2,200 people. Hearing impairments benefited.
He added that the Ministry of Social Development provides hearing aids to citizens with disabilities who meet eligibility requirements, in addition to free training services to obtain driving licenses, in partnership with the General Traffic Department.
He pointed out that upgrading the identity card for people with disabilities paved the way for the deaf to benefit from the facilities and privileges of government agencies and ministries designated for people with disabilities, in addition to discount rates of up to 50% from institutions and shops. on goods and services.
He stressed that the Kingdom seeks to translate the theme of this year’s Arab Deaf Week into reality, through the solidarity and cooperation of all those concerned with providing rehabilitation, care and social services for the deaf.
The ultimate goal is to open new horizons for people with hearing disabilities to carry out projects that are compatible with their abilities, and to be able to contribute to building the nation.
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