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Campaign raises hearing loss and Deaf awareness

07 October 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied

Deaf awareness Campaign 2024 — Boipelo Leteane, Amahle Jemane, Zinzile Sibiya (Speech-Language Pathologist at UAH), Ntsatsi Dingaan-Mokushane, Andani Madzivhandila, Yolanda Nzume (Administration Clerk at UAH) and Dr Phindile Shangase at the Deaf Awareness Campaign at the UFS.

The Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH), in partnership with the Division of Public Health at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently held their annual Deaf Awareness Campaign with much success.

The campaign, which is the brainchild of Andani Madzivhandila, a Cochlear Implant MAPping Audiologist at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH), is in its second year and was attended by Deaf students from the UFS, community members and academics from the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences, including Dr Phindile Shangase from the Division of Public Health at the UFS in collaboration with UAH Speech Therapy and Audiology staff.

Purpose of the event

The event took place on 28 September 2024 in the foyer of the Francoise Retief building. September is the International Month for Deaf People. The Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Med-EL assisted with some sponsorship to make the event a success. Ntsatsi Dingaan-Mokushane, the Assistant Director for Speech Therapy and Audiology at UAH, opened the ceremony and highlighted the importance of Deaf Awareness Campaigns in general and further elaborated on the World Federation of the Deaf theme for 2024, which is “Sign up for sign language rights”.

Dr Shangase shared her experiences and challenges of living with hearing loss and how she manages it, and further elaborated that the purpose of the event was to raise awareness of the different types of hearing loss, especially deafness. It was also to raise awareness of the challenges encountered by Deaf people and to discuss available technologies to assist those with hearing loss as well as those who are born profoundly Deaf.

The event is organised to share experiences from professionals, those with hearing loss as well as the Deaf community, to share experiences on coping and managing life with hearing loss as well as deafness. The organisers try to educate the public about Deaf culture, sign language and the experiences of Deaf people and to help combat stereotypes, stigmas and misconceptions surrounding deafness. The event is also to promote inclusion and encourage equal access to education, employment, healthcare as well as breaking down communication barriers and address systemic and social barriers that hinder Deaf individuals’ participation.

Sharing lived experiences

According to Dr Shangase, the event highlighted the progress as well as gaps in support interventions for those who live with hearing loss and deafness. Says Dr Shangase: “Availability of technologies was highlighted as facilitating different forms of participation for those with hearing loss and deafness. However, it was clear that most of the available technologies are not being adopted in workplaces as well as in communities.”

Boipelo Leteane, a parent of a two-year-old child who was born deaf, shared her experiences and her journey before and after her child had undergone a cochlear implant, while Madzivhandila shed some light on the challenges faced by healthcare professionals when hearing loss/deafness is diagnosed and needs to be managed.

Amahle Jemane also shared her personal experiences and challenges she faces daily as a signing young female in South Africa, where the majority of the population use spoken language, and she uses South African Sign Language (SASL).

News Archive

UFS celebrates Kagiso Trust’s 30 years of commitment to the empowerment of impoverished communities

2015-07-15

From the left are: MEC Tate Makgoe, Free State Department of Education; Busi Tshabalala, Thabo Mofutsanyana Education District Director; Dean Zwo Nevhutalu, Kagiso Trust Trustee and UFS Director of Community Engagement, Bishop, Billy Ramahlele.
Photo: ?Thabo Kessah

Future sustainable partnerships in education will survive only if all partners are committed, honest, and transparent.

This is the view expressed by the Free State MEC for Education and UFS Council member, Tate Makgoe, during the panel discussion at the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State celebrating Kagiso Trust’s 30 years of commitment to the empowerment of impoverished communities. The topic was “The future partnership models for education in Africa”.

“Over the years, the partnership between the Free State Department of Education, the UFS, and Kagiso Trust has helped to expose the potential in our mainly rural children in the Qwaqwa area of the Thabo Mofutsanyana district,” said Makgoe.

”When we started in 2009, the matric pass rate in the district was 64%, and this rose to 87% in 2014. In Qwaqwa alone, we have managed to build 51 computer and 26 physical sciences laboratories. It was these laboratories that enabled the Free State to be the best performing province in the Physical Sciences in 2013,” added Makgoe.

“None of these achievements would have been possible if all the partners had not been committed to the course. Partnerships built on honesty and transparency are the best model, which we hope to export to other provinces and, indeed, countries,” Makgoe said.

Representing the UFS on the panel was the Director of Community Engagement, Bishop Billy Ramahlele, who added that collaborations can be successful only if the leadership was exemplary.

“As the university, we have had many collaboration with various government departments, and great strides have been achieved only with the Department of Education under the leadership of MEC Makgoe,” said Ramahlele.

”With the MEC on board, the UFS ended up dedicating its South Campus in Bloemfontein to supporting Free State schools. We now have 70 schools that benefit from live television broadcasts of lessons by some of our outstanding academics. This also enables our best academics to make a valued contribution to empowering our teachers. It also allows the university to maximise scarce resources to attain social cohesion,” he said.

In his remarks, Kagiso Trust Trustee, Dean Zwo Nevhutalu, said that Kagiso Trust was looking forward to continue working with its partners to maximise outcomes through limited resources.

“Kagiso Trust will continue to work with the poor and the marginalised and there is no better partner than the government itself. The government provides basic services, and education is one of them. This allows us to be innovative and not just dump books and equipment at schools because we are forced to by our corporate social investment obligations. Therefore, we challenge the government also to be innovative in building a sustainable future partnership model in education,” he said.

Among the dignitaries attending the panel discussion were Kagiso Trust Chairman, Dr Frank Chikane, and the late Dr Beyers Naude’s family.

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