Deaf cultures and Sign Languages of the world: Botswana (Botswana)

Created 10 April 2000, links updated monthly with the help of LinkAlarm.

Botswanan flag David Bar-TzurBotswanan flag

map of Botswana

Flag: World flag database.
Map: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection.

For a quick, interesting resource for facts about this and other countries,
try Mystic Planet - The New Age directory of Planet Earth.

Note: Flag next to a link shows what language the website is in. This is sometimes obvious by what country the link is for or the fact that the title is in English. If I feel it may be ambiguous, I have tried to clarify by using a flag. This is done so that people can read sites in the language of their choice.

Deaf education & youth Deaf health Deaf history and current events Organizations

Deaf education & youth

DeafTODAY.

Miles, M. (2001, May 31). Overcoming Resource Barriers: the challenge of implementing inclusive education in rural areas. I have chosen to focus on resource barriers because they are the most widely used excuses for not promoting inclusive practice, even in the most apparently well-resourced educational settings. My teaching colleagues in the UK claim that they would be capable of so much more, 'if only there were more resources'. A lack of resources is perceived as a barrier to inclusion across cultural, geographical and economic boundaries. It is therefore important to understand what we mean by resources and begin to tackle the problem. Resources can be divided into human resources, material resources (money!), and access to information and knowledge.

Deaf health

Botswana: We Need Privacy in HIV Tests - the Disabled. The president of Botswana Association of the Deaf, Maggie Mapharing and an intern at BONELA, Shirley Keoagile, have cried foul at being left behind in the intervention strategies in the fight against HIV. "It is difficult for us to go for HIV tests due to lack of confidentiality. This is because we have to go with sign language interpreters, which compromises our right to confidentiality," Keoagile said.

Deaf history and current events

Miles, M. (2005). Deaf people living and communication in African histories, c. 960s - 1960s. There is strong documentary evidence that deaf or hearing impaired men and women, girls and boys, did occupy social space and took roles across the full spectrum of life throughout Africa in earlier centuries, living lives like everyone else and also having some different experiences. Traces and signs of deaf people appear in many sorts of historical document, such as travellers' accounts, legal and genealogical records, government, institutional and missionary archives, linguistic studies, literature, folklore, religious narrative, mime, dance and drama. Many of their experiences have involved severe economic poverty and adversity, stigmatising attitudes and exclusionary practices; yet this has not been the norm everywhere in Africa, and many deaf people have shown great resilience, perseverance, humour and ingenuity in their dealings and communications with the non-deaf world.

Organizations

World Federation of the Deaf membership information: Botswana National Association of the Deaf (BAOD). Contact info only. Click on "A-B" and scroll down to the country name.

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