ZAMBIA DEAF YOUTH AND WOMEN
(ZDYW)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Zambia
Deaf Youth and Women is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) of the Deaf
Youths and Women. It was founded on 30th April, 2009 by a group
of Deaf people lead by Mr. Frank Musukwa Junior who felt that their
interests, rights, plights and personage were not recognized.
VISION
Our
vision is a society that guarantees full participation and equality for its
Deaf Youth and Women as well as its “hard of hearing” communities.
The
vision calls upon ZDYW to be a catalyst for change and to continuously
contribute to efforts regarding the shaping the policies of tomorrow towards
a society for all.
MISSION STATEMENT
”ZDWY’s mission is to advocate for the equalization of opportunities and for
the rights of Deaf youth and Women in all fields of life e.g. good
governance, justice, health, basic higher education, employment, social
service and social economic welfare”.
Equalization of opportunities as well as the rights of Deaf Youth and Women
calls for the recognition of Zambia Sign Language (SL) as the language of
the Deaf communities. Skills can be best taught using Sign Language.
It
is envisaged that this will be achieved by:
-
Providing service and support that reflects the values, aspirations and
culture of Deaf Youth and Women.
-
Monitoring, advocacy and awareness initiatives that focus on
Deaf Youth and Women, the
barrier of deafness and
hearing loss
-
Providing Deaf leadership
that is related to knowledge management and research
-
Contributing to policy debates that promote the mainstreaming of a
Deaf a perspective to broader
development agenda of Zambian Government and society.
-
Continuous capacity and development of staff involved with ZDYW to
achieve consistently high work output and growth.
-
Reflecting, through our work, an enhanced quality of life and well being
of Deaf people and a more
just society.
ZDYW
Values
The following are the values of ZDWY:
-
A supportive system of management
-
Commitment
-
Diversity in skills training
-
Education
-
Flexibility
-
Humility
-
Information dissemination
-
Respect for our culture of Sign Language
-
Transparency and accountability
-
Teamwork spirit
-
Time management
-
Voluntarism
OBJECTIVES
ZDYW
will ensure that services developed or those to be developed are relevant to
the needs of Deaf Youth and Women in Zambia. ZDYW will do this by
undertaking the following objectives:
1.
Deaf Youths and Women advocacy and representation in spheres of
social, economic and cultural needs so that policies are responsive to the
needs of Deaf people.
2.
Equip Deaf women with skills for economic empowerment to foster
positive living
3.
Research, development and advocacy for official legal recognition of
Zambian Sign Language
4.
Information research, publication and dissemination and Promote
social integration of the Deaf youth and women.
5.
Co-operation with local and international NGOs, the government and
companies in relation to education, training and employment opportunities
for Deaf Youth and Women
6.
Continuous advocacy, lobbying and fundraising activities
7.
Organization of leadership skills training courses, and Deaf
awareness seminars/workshops to sensitize the general public.
8.
Advocate for progressive legislation and policies to protect the
interests of the Deaf Youth and Women in line with UN Convention on Persons
with Disabilities.
9.
To open a mutual Aid Fund to collect monies for the Deaf Youth and
Women community with an emphasis on raising awareness on the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
10.
Promote sports and recreation activities for Deaf Youth and Women
11.
Advocate for human rights of Deaf youth and women and community in
general.
12.
Pass on human rights and conflict transformation skills to other Deaf
youth and Women
Zambia Deaf Youth and
Women’s
guiding principles will reflect our identity of who we are and what we stand
for, as individuals and as an organization.
In
our quest to achieve our vision and mission, we will embrace and be driven
by the following guiding principles which will influence the way in which we
interact and engage with our colleagues, clients and stakeholders:
-
Accept, welcome and respect
diversity including the diversity of opinions in a spirit of trust and
dialogue.
-
Place Deaf Youth and Women
empowerment and popular participation at the forefront of our actions,
activities and behaviors.
-
Preserve and promote the status of Zambian Sign Language as the
indigenous language of the Deaf
community.
-
Cherish nurturing of talent and self-development and potential of
Deaf Youth and Women to
succeed.
-
Be accountable, responsible and committed
above and beyond the norm.
-
Recognize and respect the views of the
Deaf
community.
-
Continuously challenge existing assumptions through improvement,
innovation and creativity.
-
Cooperate with other established organizations and support initiatives
aimed at Deaf Youth and Women
development on a broader scale.
-
Be non-racist, non-sexist and have respect for Human Rights of all
people.
-
Emphasize social and community
awareness as corner stone in everything we do.
PARTNERSHIP
Zambia Deaf Youths and Women will work in close collaboration with
Opportunity Zambia, National AIDS Council, Zambia National AIDS Network,
Zambia Federation for the Disabled, Care International , Civil Society for
Poverty Reduction, Global Movement of Children, Zambia National Association
of the Deaf, Zambia Deaf Vision, Zambia Agency for Persons with
Disabilities, Ministry of Community Development and Social services,
Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of
Youth Child Development, Ministry of Gender, Church Health Association of
Zambia, Action on Disability and Development, existing local and
International Youths and Women Organizations, Local and International
organizations that will consider it expedient to support us.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership
is open to any Deaf Youth or Women regardless of his/ her association with
any Organization. There are several kinds of membership e.g.; individual and
institutional membership. Members bring to the ZDYW knowledge, capacity and
rights based strategies and standards thereby enabling the ZDYW to release
its strengths and unity of purpose. As members bring to the ZDYW their
skills, time and other resources, ZDYW is obliged to.
v
Enhance
capacity of members to plan and implement Deaf Youths and Women’s rights,
programmes and to monitor implementation.
v
Make
relevant information available to member institutions and individuals to
realize the full ownership of ZDYW’s programmes
ACTIVITIES
1.
Education and awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS specifically for Deaf
Youth and Women.
2.
Human Rights awareness campaigns in relation to rights of deaf youth
and women
3.
Attending meetings/ workshops/ conference locally and internationally in the
interest of the organization
4.
Design and implement projects that best address issues and concerns
critical to the empowerment and advancement of Deaf Youth and Women in
Zambia.
5.
Create beehive entrepreneurial development and training with emphasis
on business management and strategic marketing aids to facilitate entry of
Deaf emerging entrepreneurs into the economic mainstream.
6.
Membership Development/outreach. The vision in on making ourselves
known to the Deaf Youths and Women and the public by encouraging members to
publicize the ZDYW Organization.
7.
Promote the well being of the Deaf community to ensure equal
enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedom through the UN Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and U.N Standard Rule on
equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities.
8.
Bridging communication gap through Sign Language awareness training
to general public, private sectors, public sector and to families of deaf
children at a reasonable charge.
How
you can support our cause:
i.
Donate resources e.g. books, magazines, computers etc.
ii.
Include us on your mailing lists for information dissemination
iii.
Plan to include us in your programmes and activities by inviting us.
iv.
Open up your forums to the Deaf by ensuring provision for Deaf Sign
Language interpretation.
v.
Acknowledge and respect Sign Language as language of Deaf people.
vi.
Support our activities:
vii.
Donate clothes for deaf youth and women
Zambia Deaf Youth and Women (ZDYW)
P.O
Box 20369,
10101 Kitwe,
Copperbelt Province.
Zambia.
SOUTHERN AFRICA.
www.zambiadeafyw.org.zm
Email:
zambiadeafyw@zambia.co.zm,
frankmusukwa2005@yahoo.com
frank-junior@zambia.co.zm
Mobil Cell # +260977 866459(SMS) / voice calls +206969 549196/+260977 971442