‘Hearing Impaired CSOs Together’ Project, carried out by Van Hearing Impaired and Families Association, and in partnership with Association of the Hearing Impaired and Their Families from Istanbul, successfully raised awareness on the rights of the hearing impaired through a shared platform.
“We established a platform thanks to the four workshops we have organised in Van with CSOs from across Türkiye. We carried out activities through this platform on capacity development, advocacy, lobbying, disability rights, cooperation and deliberated over how to become stronger together,” said the project officers at Van Hearing Impaired and Families Association, summarising the achievements of the project.
The project was carried out under the Second Phase of the Civil Society Support Programme, to support the strengthening of civic participation and the capacity of hearing-impaired CSOs so that they are able to influence and change public policies through a well-structured culture of dialogue among CSOs.
Various trainings were organised on disability rights, advocacy and campaigning, communication and organisation while establishing the platform. Workshops on needs analysis were also held throughout the run of the project. Following 15 months of project activities, 14 CSOs from seven regions of Türkiye created a platform that shares the name of the project. The platform is accessible at https://isitmeengellilerplatformu.org/
The platform was established to raise awareness on the rights of the hearing impaired and the deaf and to develop cooperation between CSOs working towards protection of these rights. The platform will hopefully strengthen the monitoring and advocacy capacities of CSOs so that they are able to identify and prevent all kinds of violence, neglect, discrimination, and abuse of the hearing-impaired and deaf individuals, as well as disadvantages and violations of rights due to legislation. The activities of the “Hearing Impaired CSOs Together” platform is based on national and international laws, including the relevant articles in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.