Deaf girls are among vulnerable people who, most of the times fall in the trap of forced sex, rape, resulting to unwanted pregnancies and Sexual Transmitted Illnesses (STIs).
The main reason is that they lack information from the community on sexual reproductive health as service providers are not also informed. Testimony of Donatille Mukarutamu, a nurse from Huye district, Southern province who is among beneficiaries of the training on Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE) organized by Rwanda National Association of Deaf Women (RNADW), show that lack of specific knowledge on CSE could delay the efforts to help deaf girls at the health center.
“Before the training, we used to have deaf girls seeking for Sexual Reproductive Health Services but we could not manage to help them effectively, as we lacked some important information,” Mukarutamu said.
She said she has gained important skills in CSE, whereby they acquired skills in different concepts of Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH), including the rationale of telling children the truth about SRH and tips to hold a talk with children of different age categories about these subjects, difference between gender and sex, behaviours based on sex gender, services dedicated to youth, family planning methods, counselling and HIV/AIDS testing, prevention and treatment of STIs, preventing violence, how to prevent illegal abortion, advice to the glooms to be and women menstrual cycle among others.
Mukarutamu said that after the training, few cases came to their services and were helped with the information they wanted and other services regarding SRH.
She says that she started to share the skills acquired to her fellow nurses at the health center.
Anathalie Musanzimfura, another nurse working at Nyarurenzi Health Center in Kigali, said that she learned different things about SRH and how it begins from childhood to adulthood.
“We learned how we can help deaf girls to know their period. We were taught that it is better to tell children the truth about Sexual Reproductive Health and give them all necessary information so that they can get rid of men who tempt them into sex,” Musanzimfura said.
She reiterates that they could not manage to fully serve deaf adolescent girls at health centers before the training.
“We could not understand that it is their rights to know SRH concepts as we could not imagine that they can be lured, so, we used to isolate them, but with the training, we managed to understand that we must tell them about their reproductive health and how to avoid people who can violate them sexually,” she said.
Musanzimfura added that they have not yet received a case of any deaf girl after the training, who wants SRH service. “But we are ready to support them and we have shared the skills acquired to our colleagues,” Musanzimfura noted.
Trained nurses on CSE appreciate the initiative as a tool to fast track the implementation of inclusive services to the community.