Chronicle Editor
Mary Mundeya and Regina Pasipanodya
WHEN Ms Tendai Mhondoro (41) went into labour for the first time in 2013, she was worried about her baby’s welfare, as she could not communicate well with the midwife who was attending to her.
Ms Mhondoro is hearing-impaired.
“I prayed for a miracle, as I was feeling alone and helpless. I thought that I was going to lose my baby and to make matters worse, the nurse was clueless about sign language,” said Ms Mhondoro describing her labour experience as the worst experience of her life.
For three days, she endured painful contractions but her real struggle was a result of poor communication with the midwives at Parirenyatwa Hospital which is Zimbabwe’s biggest referral hospital.
“I couldn’t understand their instructions and I didn’t know how to ask for help. I felt isolated, scared, and frustrated,” she said.
Her story is typical of how the language barrier is denying hearing-impaired women in Zimbabwe from properly accessing maternal health care, which often leads to infant and maternal mortality.
In Zimbabwe, accessing maternal health services by hearing-impaired women is cumbersome.
A 2021 baseline study by the Zimbabwe Deaf Trust says the deaf community has been “invisible”. It says focus has been given to other forms of disability that are more visible neglecting the needs of the people who are hearing-impaired.
A Catholic Institute for International Relations working under the banner, ‘Progressio’ recently referred to people who are hearing-impaired as ‘a forgotten tribe’ emphasising that Sign Language services are rarely available in health facilities in Zimbabwe as compared to facilities for other forms of disabilities.
Ironically, inclusiveness has been the major challenge for a country that has disability-specific legislation. Sign Language was made one of Zimbabwe’s 16 official languages in 2013 with the adoption of the current constitution.
Hearing-impaired women have been hard-hit by the lack of implementation as they are repeatedly excluded from health education, counselling, and decision-making due to the lack of Sign Language interpreters and trained staff in the health sector. This has often resulted in them being neglected.
In an interview, former Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Dr John Mangwiro concurred that the situation was bad.
“Imagine being surrounded by people who cannot understand you,” he quipped.
“As the government, it has become our top priority to make sure that nurses in local hospitals are trained to be able to communicate with everyone including the deaf.
“The Ministry has been rolling a programme of training nurses in Sign Language for quite some time now in central hospitals starting with Parirenyatwa.”
The initiative is however yet to reach all parts of the country.
Meanwhile, a local student has given hope to hearing impaired mothers-to-be through the invention of a Sign Language interpreter.
Joannette Ngwenya (17), a learner at Dominican Convent High School in Bulawayo has designed a ground-breaking sign language interpreter that could be used as an alternative to communicate with able-hearing people who have no interest in Sign Language.
Joannette said she was inspired by the fact that most able-hearing people have no interest in Sign Language, therefore with her computer program sign language can be translated into English using coding.
“I hope that my invention will help deaf people communicate better with others and access more opportunities,” said Joanette.
Her project introduces a new and effective method of allowing communication between hearing impaired and hearing communities that is permanent, efficient, and mostly accurate. Joanette scooped a Special Award in Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Texas in May this year.
Ms Maudy Moyo (33), who is also hearing-impaired, applauded Joanette’s innovative idea that seeks to address critical challenges faced by hearing-impaired people in society.
Ms Moyo said she also went through a difficult time in 2014, when she gave birth to her first child.
“During visits to a local clinic, whenever the nurses learned that I was deaf, they would pass my file from one nurse to another. Some nurses would disappear from the room and not return, hoping that I would get assisted by the next person who entered the room,” said Ms Moyo.
“We could not find an interpreter and communicating through writing was a nightmare.
“In our deaf culture, our English is different from the one used by people who can talk. Therefore, any information that is being communicated in a format that a person struggles to understand can make a person even more confused, especially on health matters. I believe this innovation could help us as it can be used on both ends.”
Deaf Zimbabwe Trust Executive Director Ms Barbra Nyangairi said information technology has always been helpful to the hearing impaired community by giving them access to information, and services among other things.
“It is true that in Zimbabwe, we have seen some improvement in the last 10 years, with an increase in deaf awareness and programmes but when it comes to services provided by government institutions a lot needs to be done,” she said.
“We are still lagging behind considering that the Sign Language is still limited in terms of signs, vocabulary and a lot needs to be done to describe and document so that sign language is operationalised.
“If put to practice, I believe that Joanette’s innovation has potential to address the barriers of communication that have been experienced between people who can talk and the deaf in our community.”
Deaf Zimbabwe Trust is a voluntary organisation that promotes the rights and interests of the hearing impaired. — shecorrespondsafrica
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