JEDDAH: The Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi Center for Excellence in Breast Cancer, with the cooperation of King Abdul Aziz University and Deaf Club for Women in Jeddah, on Monday organized a special program and workshop for speech- and hearing-impaired women.
The main aim of the program was to spread awareness on women’s health rights, especially for handicapped women in society.
A number of speech- and hearing-impaired women from the Deaf Club for Women, experts from King Abdul Aziz University, charities, specialists and those interested in the condition attended the program.
Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi, chairwoman of the Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi Center, explained the importance of empowerment of women’s health in the Kingdom. She talked about women rights as a breast cancer patient, at the national and international levels.
Al-Amoudi said as most of the time organizations talk about health rights but ignore the handicapped, it is important to spread awareness on women’s health rights, but it is also very important to talk about women with special needs.
The speech- and hearing-impaired, as well as vision-impaired women, have full rights like normal women, unfortunately they are ignored by the community, when they are equally exposed to health problems.
“They should be empowered with knowledge in their own language, such as sign language and Braille; this is why we emphasized having a special event directed to them in their language,” she said.
She explained that women, whether handicapped or normal, have the right to know about their health conditions directly from their doctors; because of the involvement of family members, mistrust often happens between doctor and patients.
“There is a misconception in the Kingdom that sometimes the doctors talk directly to the to the guardian and not the handicapped, which is against Shariah and the rules of Ministry of Health. An adult or mature women is one who has the right to concerned health care and information regarding her surgery or other treatments, and nobody has the right to hide the information from her,” she said.
Approximately 750,000 people are speech and hearing impaired in the Kingdom, she said. “I am sure this figure is not accurate, as everybody is not registered; we know that a lot of families don’t show up, they hide the information, even this is a quite high number,” she said.
It is important to understand that such handicapped persons are part of our community, and have full rights to be treated equally, and it’s everyone’s social responsibility, “I wish all such speech- and hearing-impaired people could learn sign language, because they face problems with communication, and sign language is the only way for them to communicate,” she added.
She said there is a national and international treaty that sign language should be adopted in every field at all levels, and Kingdom has started its use to adapt to international standards.
Experts Dr. Talal Abu Sanad, Dr. Suzan Al-Kafi from King Adul Aziz University Hospital explained breast cancer in general, early detection, self-examination, clinical examination and mammograms. Dr. Fayza Natto, an expert in sign language, explained the program while signing.
Fatima Ahmed, an attendee of the program, praised the efforts of the Deaf Club for Women in Jeddah and organizers, to talk about women’s health rights in sign language and provide the information in Braille as well.
The main aim of the program was to spread awareness on women’s health rights, especially for handicapped women in society.
A number of speech- and hearing-impaired women from the Deaf Club for Women, experts from King Abdul Aziz University, charities, specialists and those interested in the condition attended the program.
Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi, chairwoman of the Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi Center, explained the importance of empowerment of women’s health in the Kingdom. She talked about women rights as a breast cancer patient, at the national and international levels.
Al-Amoudi said as most of the time organizations talk about health rights but ignore the handicapped, it is important to spread awareness on women’s health rights, but it is also very important to talk about women with special needs.
The speech- and hearing-impaired, as well as vision-impaired women, have full rights like normal women, unfortunately they are ignored by the community, when they are equally exposed to health problems.
“They should be empowered with knowledge in their own language, such as sign language and Braille; this is why we emphasized having a special event directed to them in their language,” she said.
She explained that women, whether handicapped or normal, have the right to know about their health conditions directly from their doctors; because of the involvement of family members, mistrust often happens between doctor and patients.
“There is a misconception in the Kingdom that sometimes the doctors talk directly to the to the guardian and not the handicapped, which is against Shariah and the rules of Ministry of Health. An adult or mature women is one who has the right to concerned health care and information regarding her surgery or other treatments, and nobody has the right to hide the information from her,” she said.
Approximately 750,000 people are speech and hearing impaired in the Kingdom, she said. “I am sure this figure is not accurate, as everybody is not registered; we know that a lot of families don’t show up, they hide the information, even this is a quite high number,” she said.
It is important to understand that such handicapped persons are part of our community, and have full rights to be treated equally, and it’s everyone’s social responsibility, “I wish all such speech- and hearing-impaired people could learn sign language, because they face problems with communication, and sign language is the only way for them to communicate,” she added.
She said there is a national and international treaty that sign language should be adopted in every field at all levels, and Kingdom has started its use to adapt to international standards.
Experts Dr. Talal Abu Sanad, Dr. Suzan Al-Kafi from King Adul Aziz University Hospital explained breast cancer in general, early detection, self-examination, clinical examination and mammograms. Dr. Fayza Natto, an expert in sign language, explained the program while signing.
Fatima Ahmed, an attendee of the program, praised the efforts of the Deaf Club for Women in Jeddah and organizers, to talk about women’s health rights in sign language and provide the information in Braille as well.
