The non-governmental organization Hope for Life Association and various partners including the Rwandan Society for the Deaf and Dumb (RNUD), with the support of the Disability Rights Fund, met in a meeting on February 2, 2024. The conference aims to advocate for the deaf and hard of speech in the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the seventh month of this year 2024.
Mary Josiane, who founded the ‘Hope for Life Association’ and is its leader, says that they looked together at the problems of the deaf and the mute, the obstacles, and what the country is doing about it.
They found that Rwanda has been signing international agreements, establishing policies and laws that state that every Rwandan who meets the requirements has the freedom to vote without any barriers, but they found that those with hearing and speech disabilities have obstacles because they cannot understand others because they use sign language. .
People who are deaf and hard of hearing say they are watching election-related activities but don’t know what it means.
Mary Josiane said, “What we ask is that our administration continue to put in effort so that those with hearing and speech disabilities have enough information about the elections that are being planned, so that even they can participate, and they will vote knowing what they are doing.”
In these discussions, some of the election officials at the District level were invited, who were aware of these challenges, and decided to discuss them with their colleagues, and look together at ways to solve them.
A Rwandan non-governmental organization called ‘Hope for Life Association’ works on various topics, but also has advocacy activities for people with disabilities.
They work in particular with the Rwandan Society for the Deaf and Dumb (RNUD) with the support of the Disability Rights Fund.
