Análisis de las partes interesadas

¿Qué partes interesadas (ONG, gobierno, sector privado) identificó como aliados y cómo los involucró?
Government (various ministries), parents of deaf children, general public.

¿Qué partes interesadas identificó como adversarios y por qué se oponían?
Ministries were not opposed to the schooling of deaf people, but considered it as a social project instead of education. It took quite a bit of convincing, mostly during visits to report and show the results, to get this form of special education included in the Ministry of Education´s plans and budget.

¿De qué forma involucró a sus beneficiarios en el análisis de partes interesadas/la campaña?
Education for deaf children is always started at the request of the community and with their complete involvement.

Breve descripción de la organización que implementa la acción/campaña

The aim of Silent Work Foundation West Africa is to support the forgotten children of Africa. Silent Work supports small scale local initiatives in the following dominions: safety, hygienic drinking water, nutrition (agriculture, cattle-breeding and fishery), medical support, education and housing. Trauma counselling is also supported. Where possible the foundation supports sustainable projects where youngsters will receive professional training. The care for safety and a better future for deaf and/or disabled children is an important priority. The Silent Work Foundation is independent and unattached to any specific ideology or religion. The foundation has been recognised and registered as an NGO by the government. Silent Work West Africa works in close co-operation with the Dutch Silent Work Foundation, which helps raise the necessary funds for projects in Mauritania, Rwanda and Senegal.

Período de acción
2005-2015 (and ongoing)

Objetivos
1. To create educational possibilities for deaf children.
2. To make the government realise that the education of the deaf should be considered as education, not as a social cause.
3. To improve the position of deaf people in Mauritania.

Resultados
There are 5 small primary schools for deaf children, in different regions of Mauritania. A Vocational Training Centre for deaf youngsters without preliminary education has also been started.

30 teachers have been trained, partly from Senegal and Mali; some of them are deaf .

Silent Work has developed a method called Langue Colorée (Coloured Language) to teach deaf children reading and writing. This method has been fully adapted to the country´s culture and religion.

2 DVD´s with the American and Arab Sign Language have been produced. Each DVD has 1000 words in sign language. Each DVD is a dictionary of sign language realised.

Descripción de las actividades preparatorias
1. To establish contact with the various ministries involved in the care of deaf people and make appointments for a visit.
2. Thinking of ways to inform the general public about the possibilities of deaf children.
3. Investigate regional requests to start a school for the deaf.

Descripción de la implementación
1. Silent Work used the first visits to the authorities to clear up misunderstandings about deafness and convince them that the only thing deaf children cannot do is to hear. And that they therefore have a right to education, just like other children. In order to demonstrate the viability of their educational model, Silent Work paid for all expenses (building and equipment of schools, teaching materials, salaries of teachers) for a number of years.
2. Silent Work decided to show the abilities of deaf people wherever possible. A TV interview with a deaf young man through a sign language interpreter helped very much.
3. Permission was asked and obtained to build and equip the school, hire and train the teachers.

Seguimiento
Each year visits are being made to the various ministries involved to report on the progress made that year and to show pictures of the results so far.