Support for deaf people.
I am a specialised teacher and am also deaf. I have six children but was abandoned by their father a long time ago. I am also a tutor for two little deaf and dumb boys.
Deaf women in poor countries often face particular problems. It is almost impossible for them to find a job, and if they do, it is impossible to succeed in it. Social barriers and people’s attitudes mean that deaf women often find there is no place for them in society. That is my situation today.
I set up a school called Ephphata for deaf children, where they could stay long-term. We have excellent results in the Primary Studies Certificate, though many problems with funding remain.
The school gives deaf children the opportunity of education and helps them to realise their potential.
I long for a Centre where deaf Christians can make friends and find support and spiritual counselling. In the future I hope to set up literacy training for deaf adults and a Sunday school for those who are deaf or deaf and dumb. I would appreciate ideas and support from other readers.
Mme Solange Pale, Directrice École Ephphata pour les Sourds, 01 BP 02 Gaoua, Province du Poni, Burkina Faso
HIV and AIDS and mental disability
People with mental disabilities are human beings, like all others. Amani Centre works with parents to make sure the rights and needs of children and adults with mental disabilities are respected. Like other people they have the right to form relationships and marry.
However, people with mental disabilities could be more vulnerable to HIV as they rarely have the ability to decide and to choose when and how to have sex. They are often forced to have unprotected sex, sometimes against their will. Amani Centre has often had to deal with serious cases of rape. Many more cases are not revealed.
Amani Centre tries to mobilise and support families of people with mental disabilities to help protect their rights.
Magnus Mahenge, Amani Centre, Morogoro, Tanzania. E-mail: magnusmahenge@yahoo.com
Liquid waste pollution
The illegal dumping of refuse and toxic waste has many serious impacts on health and on the environment. In our rapidly growing towns the councils and some NGOs work hard to limit this pollution. However, there is still a lot to do.
In urban areas many houses have no drainage for dirty water, due to lack of space. Dirty water from washing and food preparation is often poured onto the street. Any existing drainage system is usually just for rainwater. There is often no working service to empty septic tanks or deal with dirty liquid from small local industries and workshops. In these situations, dirty, smelly and dangerous water runs into the streets and causes pollution. It pollutes supplies of household water and causes a risk to public health.
Do any readers have ideas and advice on appropriate and low-cost drainage systems and methods of collecting household waste liquid?
Ahmadou B Kabou, BP 522, Maroua, Cameroon. E-mail: mana_ben@yahoo.fr
A nose for danger
A Belgian man, Bart Weetjens, has always loved rodents. As a boy, he kept rats and mice and bred them. He is now involved in a new way of detecting landmines using rats. There are millions of unexploded land mines left in many countries, which injure or kill thousands of people every year. Detecting them is very dangerous and costly.
Weetjens saw the potential of training rats to do this work. Initially no-one would give him support, but after three years the Belgian government gave him some funding and he was able to register APOPO* as an NGO. He uses the African giant pouched species. They live for up to eight years (much longer than other species) and are the size of cats, making them easy to see. They also have a very sensitive sense of smell. APOPO trains the rats, who wear harnesses, to smell explosive and react by scratching the ground to indicate the presence of a land mine. It took a number of years before he could prove that his ideas could work. Now 20 rats are working in Mozambique, with another 240 in training.
APOPO has offices and a field-testing site in Tanzania. Funding has come in from several sources. Weetjens and his colleagues believe their training can be modified to enable the rats to detect disease in laboratory samples through smell. They could also be used to find earthquake victims and to search for drugs or weapons.
Website: www.apopo.org
Adapted from an article by Rich Cookson, Independent newspaper.
*Anti-personnel Mines Demining Product Development