Deaf people suffer in 'silence' as SGBV persists

Susan, not her real name, was not born deaf.

When she was born 27 years ago, the doctors had conducted all the tests that confirmed that she was a healthy baby.

Fast forward, at the age of four, she was diagnosed with meningitis, a disease that left her with hearing impairment.

In order to be understood, she would later be enrolled to a sign language school, a development that Susan appreciates helped her learn how to communicate with the few people she would come across.

Despite having accepted her condition, Susan says living with hearing impairment has come with a number of challenges with the main one being language barrier.

“A number of times, whenever I needed any services from some of the public services, I had to be accompanied by a family member, my mother had decided to learn sign language in order to help those around to understand me,” she says.

Her parents had also enrolled her in school before later taking a course in patient attendance. Her major challenges however began while on job practice.

On most occasions, Susan says she would be excluded from her work place activities, something that left her discouraged.

“There was lots of inequality in my work place, I remember on most occasions, I would be asked to work separately from other team members,” she says.

“It was on one of those working days when my boss approached me asking for sexual favors in order to grant me a job in the facility,” she added. 

While she had turned her male supervisor down, she ended up losing the opportunity in the hospital where she had so much wanted to secure employment.

The 27-year-old says her efforts to have the case reported bore no fruits due to lack of a sign language interpreter.

“I still believe that I will get a job someday, I have dropped a number of applications although I am yet to get feedback,” she said.

Susan is among the Persons With Disability (PWD) who often fail to get justice due to communication barriers with the relevant authorities.

While the country has been on the front line advocating against Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), cases among the deaf and mentally challenged have continued to go undocumented.

Seen but not heard, the vulnerable population is faced with communication barriers due to lack of sign language experts in public spaces.

Lydia Digo, the founder Elite Deaf, Kisumu says number of SGBV cases among the deaf often go unreported especially in the rural and slum areas due to lack of sign language interpreters.

She said that the survivors have also raised concerns over compromised privacy whenever an external sign language interpreter is involved when reporting a case.

“Hospitals and police stations are the most important places that an SGBV survivor should be able to first seek help, but very few people understand sign language in the facilities,” says Ms Digo.

Those who opt to report at the chiefs offices also fail to be understood due to communication barrier.

According to Ms Digo, although there are a number of cases of abuse among people with disability in the rural setup, they die a natural death while the perpetrators continue to walk around freely.

“The deaf are among the persons at risk of SGBV since they cannot make noise to raise alarm, fight back and due to lack of interpreters, they are unable to describe the offenders who continue to walk around freely,” she said.

Earlier this week, the Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (KMET) and Elite Deaf organisation organised a paralegal training aimed at creating awareness on how to approach, prevent and report cases of SGBV among the deaf and persons who are mentally challenged.

Ms Sharon Amindi, a policy and advocacy lead at KMET says there are a number of gaps on PWDs getting legal assistance and psychosocial support.

She says that the training had been influenced by a recent case where a young deaf girl was defiled but failed to get justice due to the inability to recognise the perpetrator as a result of communication barrier.

“From our interactions with the local community based organisations, we learnt that a number of PWDs who face violence have continued to suffer in silence,” says Ms Amindi who also doubles up as a high court advocate. 

“As much as we speak about prevention, the PWDs have been forgotten, we may have offices but lack informed people to guide them through the legal pathway,” said Ms Amindi.

The PWDs often fall victims to SGBV cases, majorly rape and defilement. Ms Amindi said the cases also end up undocumented by both county and other relevant authorities.

She says that the deaf also miss out on psycho-social support due to lack of counsellors who understand sign language experts.

“With constant training, we believe that the PWDs will not only act as paralegals in the villages but also know the right doors to knock whenever faced with a challenge,” he said.

She emphasized on the need to have more sign language interpreters in the rural area and the need to document the cases for relevant authorities to take action.

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