Africa-Press – South-Africa. The sixth annual Silent Walk and Run will be held in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The initiative commemorates International Week of Deaf People and aims to raise awareness of gender-based violence within the hearing-impaired community.
The event will be held at the Marks Park Sports Club in Emmerentia and activities will include a 5km walk, aerobics, tennis, and yoga.
International Week of Deaf People is commemorated annually to draw the attention of the public, government, and business leaders to the issues within the community. This year it runs between 19 and 25 September.
Hearing impaired people across the world are encouraged to ensure that this community’s rights are protected.
Neema Foundation for the Deaf chairperson Cebisile Ndebele said many incidents of gender-based violence went unreported and that this might lead to the normalisation of gender-based violence in the deaf community.
She said:
The foundation is working with the City of Johannesburg, the Gauteng government, the City of Ekurhuleni, Safer South Africa Foundation (SSAF), eDeaf, and the Tears Foundation.
City of Johannesburg’s Health and Social Development MMC Ashley Sauls said people with impaired hearing were most prone to indignity and suffering from people who did not understand their needs and struggles, and even some who tried to take advantage of their impairment.
“We fully support greater social change so that these people can be assisted at every stage of the journey to fight GBV being perpetrated against them.
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“I urge people to get involved and add their voice to the cause by simply putting their feet to the tarmac this Saturday,” said Sauls.
According to SSAF CEO Riah Phiyega, the #SilentWalk&Run footprint would expand across six provinces: KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Eastern Cape, North West, Mpumalanga, and the Western Cape.
“This makes our participation in the #SilentWalk&Run a befitting one as we will be extending our crime prevention programme to people with disabilities,” she said.
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