TANZANIA Forest Services (TFS) has expressed willingness to assist people living with disabilities (PLWD), including people with hearing impairment to enable them to fight against poverty and earn a decent living.
Bukoba District TFS Development Officer Braison Paul revealed this during a three-day on-field training workshop attended by 62 participants, including 22 females, members of the Tanzania Deaf Association (Chavita) from Muleba, Bukoba, Biharamulo, Ngara, Missenyi, Karagwe and Kyerwa districts.
Expounding, he said during the workshop the participants visited Rubale Forest in Bukoba Rural District and were educated on how to plant tree species which were friendly to the environment, including pines and eucalyptus.
“Many PLWD, including people with hearing impairment, were often forgotten in various programmes. TFS conducted the on-field training workshop to educate participants on environmental conservation, including tree planting and beekeeping techniques,” he said.
He further revealed that TFS would provide tree seedlings from Rubale Forest free of charge to the participants.
“After attending the workshop, the participants will form cooperative groups in their respective areas by planting trees and beekeeping. This is the best way to assist people with hearing impairment to enable them to fight against poverty,” he said.
Bukoba District Chavita Secretary Judith Kashuliza on behalf of the participants thanked TFS for timely intervention.
Bukoba District Commissioner Deodatus Kinawiro, while opening the training workshop held between March 4 and 6, this year, appealed to district councils to set aside land in their respective areas for people with disabilities and also direct forest officers to make follow-ups on their tree planting project.
Meanwhile, people with hearing impairment have appealed to the government to invest in schools that catered for only hearing-impaired pupils or students to have specialised tutors for subjects.
Bukoba District Chavita Secretary Judith Kashuliza noted that during recent school examination results, pupils and students who were deaf did not perform very well.
“It is time to have specialised schools for hearingimpaired people where teachers will specifically be trained to handle them instead of relying on the current system of just having special departments in mainstream educational institutions. Many such students and pupils are very bright, the only problem is miscommunication between them and their teachers in classrooms,” she said.
She revealed that at the moment teachers’ colleges offering specialised training for tutors who handled pupils and students with impaired hearing and sight were Patandi Teachers College of Meru in Arusha Region and Lushoto in Tanga.
On September 28, 2019 the Institutions for Inclusive Development (I4ID), a development project co-funded by Irish Aid and DFID, joined other stakeholders across the country to mark International Week of the Deaf.
A diverse group of actors converged in Iringa for a landmark celebration to reflect on the challenges the deaf community faces and the progress that has been made to date
