Benchmarks for sign language in Vietnam

April 22, 2009
Sexuality education in Vietnam: benchmarks for sign language
4 million Vietnamese people are hearing-impaired. They are some of the most disadvantaged people and their sexual en reproductive health (SRH) needs have long been neglected.  Currently, there is no official data on their SRH problems. The combination of social discrimination against these people and the precariousness of essential social and health services, however, means that
hearing-impaired people are often more vulnerable to SRH problems such as unplanned pregnancies, sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) and sexual abuse, than others. SRH education is therefore an important means to addressing these problems.

WPF Vietnam and the Xa Dan school are piloting an intervention for sex. education for deaf young people. The intervention has 3 components:

• developing an SRH (including HIV/AIDS) curriculum for deaf students;
• creating the first SRH sign language glossary in Vietnam;
• providing SRH knowledge and teaching skills for teachers.

Nguyen Hai Thuong published an article on the subject in Exchange on HIV/AIDS Sexuality and Gender. The text above is an abstract from the article.

>> article Exchange
Courtesy of Exchange, Royal Tropical Institute, The Netherlands.