Seattle.guy
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2006
- Messages
- 1,367
- Reaction score
- 0
radiojamaica.com - Jamaica (Wednesday, Nov 1, 2006)
By Janice Budd, RJR Reporter/Producer
Photo:
http://www.rjrgroupsites.com/rjrwebsites/text/newsimages/e7d094f_dawwwnily1.jpg
She's 15-years-old and one of many rape victims whose anguish has
been amplified because they can't speak. She is part of a silent
minority of girls and young women who are targeted by sexual
predators because of their disability. Her inability to communicate
with the hearing world left her powerless against her attacker in
June 2006.
She says her sister, who is her primary caregiver, deliberately left
her alone with the rapist.
After the attack, she struggled to understand and accept what had
happened to her, even as her extended family let her down.
She was not taken to the police nor did she see a doctor.
Her anguish is the same as a lot of hearing impaired girls, who
society often treats like they are less than human.
For these girls, schools like the Caribbean Christian Centre for the
Deaf is a place of refuge. Principal Marie Lawrence says many of her
female students have to deal with similar sexual trauma, especially
when they leave the safety of the dorms for home.
She says the school does its best to offer not just academic, but
emotional and moral support for deaf children whose family support is
often non-existent.
This feeling of isolation and being vulnerable in a hearing world
tends to follow deaf girls throughout their lives.
They are on the fringes of society, and are often poor and poorly
educated. This makes them particularly vulnerable to sexual predators.
Deaf women and girls are often the specific target of male abusers
from the hearing world.
Control And Miscommunication
Experts suggest that in many cases, myths that sexually transmitted
diseases can be cured by sleeping with a virgin with a disability,
are the driving force for these sex crimes.
President of the Deaf Club in Kingston, Gloria Henry-Young, laments
that it is not just the hearing males who are abusive. Deaf men can
be just as aggressive and their victims are often young deaf girls.
She says just like in the hearing world, rape also happens within
marriage.
It all stems, says Gender Consultant Glenda Simms, from a belief that
women generally, and deaf women specifically, because of their
disability, are men's property and have no rights.
We met with a group of older deaf women, some of them married, all of
them mothers, to talk about these issues of sex and sexuality, in
particular navigating safe sex and protecting themselves against
HIV/AIDS in their close-knit deaf community.
Numerous deaf women literally knew nothing about HIV/AIDS and never
made condom use a habit until recently.
Christine Price says the first time she found out about the
devastating illness was at a workshop, she was shocked and frightened
that such a thing existed.
She says once she learned about HIV/AIDS, she tried to be more
careful choosing her partners. But she is still afraid of men and
feels that deaf or not, they are deceitful.
The deaf community is very tight knit, which can offer strong support
and strong condemnation at times. But even more critical, the
closeness of the community can act as an incubator for sexually
transmitted disease.
Because disabled young women are often poor, sexual predators try to
buy their affections and their silence.
State Minister for Labour and Social Security, Senator Floyd Morris,
says that their innate compassion makes them targets as well.
Dr. Simms points out that deaf women often have to navigate sexual
issues without many of the tools that hearing women have at their
disposal.
But Valerie Spence of the Jamaica Council for Persons with
Disabilities feels that negotiating safe sex with a partner is just
as challenging for the deaf as for the hearing woman.
Fear
The deaf community is a mysterious world to those who can hear.
It operates by its own social codes, and rumour and gossip sometimes
take on lives of their own.
Confidentiality is very important in this community where news
travels fast.
Hearing persons probably know the nerve wracking experience it can be
to go for an AIDS test. But imagine the discomfort being magnified
tenfold because you cannot communicate directly with the medical
practitioners.
Many deaf persons are afraid to get tested at a regular clinic.
Their fear and worry is compounded by the fact that if they go
without an interpreter, they are likely to encounter miscommunication
and misunderstanding.
If they go with an interpreter, they risk their business being found
out.
Mrs. Henry-Young said when she wanted to know her HIV status she had
to deal with angry questions from her husband, a false positive test
result and gossip in her community.
Each of these women knows at least one person in their community with
HIV/AIDS.
The authorities stress however, that the disease is not rampant
within the deaf community.
However, the assumption that disabled people are not sexually active
and therefore at low risk for HIV/AIDS, is impeding progress in the
prevention of HIV/AIDS infections.
But AIDS prevention techniques often ignore the disabled,
particularly deaf women.
Gary Foster is an HIV/AIDS education facilitator for the deaf. He is
part of a joint project by the Jamaican government and the United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) targeting deaf women.
Since July 2006, the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities
(JCPD) has been implementing this six-month island-wide HIV/AIDS
prevention programme for deaf women.
Gary Foster says he is often taken aback by how little factual
information the deaf community has about sexually transmitted
diseases. Valerie Spence of the JCPD said the same myths about
HIV/AIDS that used to be prevalent in the hearing population still
exist among the hearing impaired, for example that the disease can be
transmitted via mosquitoes.
She said the JCPD needs assessment showed that other issues about sex
and sexuality taken for granted by the hearing were laced with
inaccuracies among the deaf.
A number of deaf women had untreated STDs, some had been raped but
didn't even know it because of the social and language differences
between hearing and deaf.
They are being shortchanged by the lack of specially designed sex
education messages for the deaf and they weren't getting basic health
information.
Sex crimes also had not been reported because of the language barrier.
The JCPD's intervention programme comprises the holding of workshops
every month in a different part of the island for deaf women and
girls.
The intervention programme is wide ranging. It uses sign language to
teach safe sex basics such as condom use. But the programme is also
aimed at empowering deaf women and girls with the necessary skills to
address their social, cultural and economic vulnerability to sexual
abuse and HIV/AIDS.
They are tutored in survival and defence techniques and exposed to
ways of earning additional income, such as sewing, cookery and
cosmetology.
In the workshops, the grooming element has proven the most popular
among the deaf women, most of whom rarely get the chance to be
pampered in this way, much less to have the process described by an
interpreter.
It is hoped that exposure to these things will help protect deaf
women from sexual abuse and its consequences.
The JCPD and the Ministry of Health are not limiting these workshops
to Kingston. But the workshops are not enough.
Falling Short
The deaf community is left in the cold when it comes to safe sex and
sexual empowerment messages in the media.
Senator Morris points to the need for public education programmes on
HIV/AIDS to be sensitive to the needs of the disabled community.
There is very little HIV or sexuality education in schools for the
deaf, especially for adolescents.
Because of this, deaf persons have much less knowledge and awareness
of HIV transmission, prevention and treatment.
If deaf children do not learn about HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases, they will not have the vocabulary necessary to
talk about these topics with each other.
Although some deaf persons can read written materials such as
pamphlets used in HIV prevention, for deaf persons with limited
English skills, they are ineffective.
HIV prevention programs for deaf persons need to be as clear and as
visual as possible.
Service providers should take advantage of advances in technology
such as interactive video and the Internet.
Moving Forward
Our story started with the rape of a 15-year-old girl, and trying to
give her a way to voice her trauma in a hearing world. There was no
police report of her rape.
The deaf are known to keep very much to themselves and have an
overwhelming need for privacy.
They also know the cruelty of those who can hear and speak and the
intolerance of the able-bodied.
Additionally, there are serious issues of mistrust, fear of
miscommunication and further mistreatment when it comes to the police.
Education seems to be the answer...the gateway to communication
between the hearing world and the world of the deaf.
The families of deaf children must take the lead.
By Janice Budd, RJR Reporter/Producer
Photo:
http://www.rjrgroupsites.com/rjrwebsites/text/newsimages/e7d094f_dawwwnily1.jpg
She's 15-years-old and one of many rape victims whose anguish has
been amplified because they can't speak. She is part of a silent
minority of girls and young women who are targeted by sexual
predators because of their disability. Her inability to communicate
with the hearing world left her powerless against her attacker in
June 2006.
She says her sister, who is her primary caregiver, deliberately left
her alone with the rapist.
After the attack, she struggled to understand and accept what had
happened to her, even as her extended family let her down.
She was not taken to the police nor did she see a doctor.
Her anguish is the same as a lot of hearing impaired girls, who
society often treats like they are less than human.
For these girls, schools like the Caribbean Christian Centre for the
Deaf is a place of refuge. Principal Marie Lawrence says many of her
female students have to deal with similar sexual trauma, especially
when they leave the safety of the dorms for home.
She says the school does its best to offer not just academic, but
emotional and moral support for deaf children whose family support is
often non-existent.
This feeling of isolation and being vulnerable in a hearing world
tends to follow deaf girls throughout their lives.
They are on the fringes of society, and are often poor and poorly
educated. This makes them particularly vulnerable to sexual predators.
Deaf women and girls are often the specific target of male abusers
from the hearing world.
Control And Miscommunication
Experts suggest that in many cases, myths that sexually transmitted
diseases can be cured by sleeping with a virgin with a disability,
are the driving force for these sex crimes.
President of the Deaf Club in Kingston, Gloria Henry-Young, laments
that it is not just the hearing males who are abusive. Deaf men can
be just as aggressive and their victims are often young deaf girls.
She says just like in the hearing world, rape also happens within
marriage.
It all stems, says Gender Consultant Glenda Simms, from a belief that
women generally, and deaf women specifically, because of their
disability, are men's property and have no rights.
We met with a group of older deaf women, some of them married, all of
them mothers, to talk about these issues of sex and sexuality, in
particular navigating safe sex and protecting themselves against
HIV/AIDS in their close-knit deaf community.
Numerous deaf women literally knew nothing about HIV/AIDS and never
made condom use a habit until recently.
Christine Price says the first time she found out about the
devastating illness was at a workshop, she was shocked and frightened
that such a thing existed.
She says once she learned about HIV/AIDS, she tried to be more
careful choosing her partners. But she is still afraid of men and
feels that deaf or not, they are deceitful.
The deaf community is very tight knit, which can offer strong support
and strong condemnation at times. But even more critical, the
closeness of the community can act as an incubator for sexually
transmitted disease.
Because disabled young women are often poor, sexual predators try to
buy their affections and their silence.
State Minister for Labour and Social Security, Senator Floyd Morris,
says that their innate compassion makes them targets as well.
Dr. Simms points out that deaf women often have to navigate sexual
issues without many of the tools that hearing women have at their
disposal.
But Valerie Spence of the Jamaica Council for Persons with
Disabilities feels that negotiating safe sex with a partner is just
as challenging for the deaf as for the hearing woman.
Fear
The deaf community is a mysterious world to those who can hear.
It operates by its own social codes, and rumour and gossip sometimes
take on lives of their own.
Confidentiality is very important in this community where news
travels fast.
Hearing persons probably know the nerve wracking experience it can be
to go for an AIDS test. But imagine the discomfort being magnified
tenfold because you cannot communicate directly with the medical
practitioners.
Many deaf persons are afraid to get tested at a regular clinic.
Their fear and worry is compounded by the fact that if they go
without an interpreter, they are likely to encounter miscommunication
and misunderstanding.
If they go with an interpreter, they risk their business being found
out.
Mrs. Henry-Young said when she wanted to know her HIV status she had
to deal with angry questions from her husband, a false positive test
result and gossip in her community.
Each of these women knows at least one person in their community with
HIV/AIDS.
The authorities stress however, that the disease is not rampant
within the deaf community.
However, the assumption that disabled people are not sexually active
and therefore at low risk for HIV/AIDS, is impeding progress in the
prevention of HIV/AIDS infections.
But AIDS prevention techniques often ignore the disabled,
particularly deaf women.
Gary Foster is an HIV/AIDS education facilitator for the deaf. He is
part of a joint project by the Jamaican government and the United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) targeting deaf women.
Since July 2006, the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities
(JCPD) has been implementing this six-month island-wide HIV/AIDS
prevention programme for deaf women.
Gary Foster says he is often taken aback by how little factual
information the deaf community has about sexually transmitted
diseases. Valerie Spence of the JCPD said the same myths about
HIV/AIDS that used to be prevalent in the hearing population still
exist among the hearing impaired, for example that the disease can be
transmitted via mosquitoes.
She said the JCPD needs assessment showed that other issues about sex
and sexuality taken for granted by the hearing were laced with
inaccuracies among the deaf.
A number of deaf women had untreated STDs, some had been raped but
didn't even know it because of the social and language differences
between hearing and deaf.
They are being shortchanged by the lack of specially designed sex
education messages for the deaf and they weren't getting basic health
information.
Sex crimes also had not been reported because of the language barrier.
The JCPD's intervention programme comprises the holding of workshops
every month in a different part of the island for deaf women and
girls.
The intervention programme is wide ranging. It uses sign language to
teach safe sex basics such as condom use. But the programme is also
aimed at empowering deaf women and girls with the necessary skills to
address their social, cultural and economic vulnerability to sexual
abuse and HIV/AIDS.
They are tutored in survival and defence techniques and exposed to
ways of earning additional income, such as sewing, cookery and
cosmetology.
In the workshops, the grooming element has proven the most popular
among the deaf women, most of whom rarely get the chance to be
pampered in this way, much less to have the process described by an
interpreter.
It is hoped that exposure to these things will help protect deaf
women from sexual abuse and its consequences.
The JCPD and the Ministry of Health are not limiting these workshops
to Kingston. But the workshops are not enough.
Falling Short
The deaf community is left in the cold when it comes to safe sex and
sexual empowerment messages in the media.
Senator Morris points to the need for public education programmes on
HIV/AIDS to be sensitive to the needs of the disabled community.
There is very little HIV or sexuality education in schools for the
deaf, especially for adolescents.
Because of this, deaf persons have much less knowledge and awareness
of HIV transmission, prevention and treatment.
If deaf children do not learn about HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases, they will not have the vocabulary necessary to
talk about these topics with each other.
Although some deaf persons can read written materials such as
pamphlets used in HIV prevention, for deaf persons with limited
English skills, they are ineffective.
HIV prevention programs for deaf persons need to be as clear and as
visual as possible.
Service providers should take advantage of advances in technology
such as interactive video and the Internet.
Moving Forward
Our story started with the rape of a 15-year-old girl, and trying to
give her a way to voice her trauma in a hearing world. There was no
police report of her rape.
The deaf are known to keep very much to themselves and have an
overwhelming need for privacy.
They also know the cruelty of those who can hear and speak and the
intolerance of the able-bodied.
Additionally, there are serious issues of mistrust, fear of
miscommunication and further mistreatment when it comes to the police.
Education seems to be the answer...the gateway to communication
between the hearing world and the world of the deaf.
The families of deaf children must take the lead.
sexual predators should not be given mercy and further opportunities to practice their dark pleasures. There was an article the other month about a prisoner who woke one morning with a dead girl's name scrawled on his forehead, probably with an exacto knife. i d think something like testicular (bodacious, cowabunga!) separation and mass scarification would be incentive enough not to inappropriately play with little kids.