About the Organization
The National Association of the Deaf Lesotho (NADL), formerly known as Lesotho Association of the Speech and Hearing Impaired (LASHIP), was established in February 1992 and officially registered on the 25th November 1994. NADL changed to its current name in 2004. NADL’s Mission is to: Promote human rights and welfare of the Deaf Community of Lesotho. Their vision is an equal opportunity and respect for the Deaf people toward attaining their preferential status and freedom in Lesotho.
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Transcript: “Hi! My name is Bongiwe Buzi. I am deaf, I am from from Lesotho. I am working with the Deaf association in Lesotho. For our project, we are working to empower and train the youth in leadership . We have five goals, pay attention. We will train 50 deaf youth in Lesotho. We will raise deaf awareness. We will promote leadership within the deaf community. Four, we will train youth about human rights. And five, we will work with other deaf associations in other countries. Thank you!”
About the Project
In this project, NADL will help Deaf Youth Members and relevant organisations with empowerment tools and expertise to use their experience from the training workshop to change their lives by working together as a unit. They will develop projects and programmes that promote and empower others to join their movement in advocating for their rights in leadership. The goal of this partnership is to ensure a successful project that will positively impact the lives of Deaf Youth in Lesotho.
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Transcript: Hello! My name is Lets’ekha Ntale. I’m from Lesotho. I work in the Deaf Association. Its abbreviated name is NADL. I’m happy to work with you, MNI! Our project name is Youth Empowerment & Leadership Training. Now I can see a partnership is good to have. We have a goal of training 50 deaf youth in Lesotho. Secondly, we will provide deaf awareness training and education. Thirdly, we will teach deaf people about human rights and advocacy. Fourth, we will empower deaf people to be leaders. Lastly we will network with other deaf organizations in other countries. We will meet and collobrate about our projects. We thank you!
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Transcript: “Hello, Hello! My name is Mat’sepiso. My last name is Mokhuromeng. I am DeafBlind. I am the program officer of the Deaf Association of Lesotho. The project is Empowerment Training of Deaf Youth. It’s an important project to train Deaf youth about different skills. So they can become leaders in the future and be able to advocate for their human rights. Empowering the Deaf youth now makes me happy to have the project with MNI. We will work better to achieve our goals! Thank you!”
Update #1
Mats’episo Mokhoromeng, the project officer of the MNI project visited Ha sechale, Mafeteng, Berea, and Leribe districts. The purpose of these visits is to visit each district to mobilize New Deaf youth Members conduct awareness raising about MNI project. Likopo made a short presentation about our project and interviewed Deaf youth about that because she want to make sure if they understood.
Mats’episo Mokhoromeng, the project officer, and Lets’ekha, the Assistant Officer of the MNI project joined in the Mafetang International Week of the Deaf celebration.
The National Association of the Deaf Lesotho (NADL) celebrated the international Deaf day in Maseru. The theme of the international Deaf day was “Sign Language Right for All.”
NADL was also commemorating 25 years since establishment, since 1994. As a way of giving back to the community, the Deaf members around Maseru and the interpreters cleaned the taxi rank which was designated by Maseru City council (MCC) Mr Makhotsa, supervisor of the cleaning office Of health and environmental department was also present on behalf of MCC. He was very satisfied with the activity. After that we had three groups of Deaf people with the aim of challenging the public and service providers when Deaf people demand service provision. The public was stuck when the Deaf people greeting them though Sign language.
The same applied to Queen Elizabeth 2, Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) and First National Bank (FNB) this service providers were unable to give accessible services to the Deaf due to communicate barriers and some of the NADL members indicated the importance of employment Sign language Interpreters within their services to enable the Deaf to access services.
Before we end our day we also mobilize 8 Deaf youth in Maseru District. After that we ended the day with a braai and drinks… It was so amazing….
Update #2
The National Association of the Deaf Lesotho (NADL) hosted a NADL-NAC collaboration workshop for Deaf youth on 21-25 October 2019 in Maseru at LANFE Hall. It was a 5-days Deaf awareness training and sensitization on HIV/AIDS Pandemic for 30 Deaf Youth.
Opening remarks were made by National Aids commission (NAC). NAC was happy to facilitate this workshop for Deaf youths and highlighted that it has extended this invitation to different organizations on various expertise on HIV/AIDS related issues. Deaf participants were requested to feel free and ask questions where necessary.
NADL outlined the objective of the workshop as giving the Deaf participants more information on HIV/AIDS issues. NAC presented on the National HIV/AIDS strategic plan 2018/2019-2022/23. The highlight of the presentation was that by 2023 All Basotho Nation will be well informed about HIV/AIDS and there will be no new infections by 2023. The Ministry of Health presented about TB and HIV confection.
NADL also had 10 various presentations from different organizations which were service providers on HIV/AIDS related issues. Population services International (PSI) brought a testing tent and Deaf youths were given an opportunity to test for HIV. Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association (LPPA), EGPAF, LENEPWA, JPHIEGO, BAYLOR clinic and Care for Basotho also came. LPPA gave presentation on the importance of continuous use of condoms and expressed the importance of staying with one partner.
Update #3
The National Association of the Deaf Lesotho (NADL) hosted an one day leadership training for Maseru deaf youth, teaching about organization roles and responsibilities.
Leadership training was conducted in November whereby 30 Deaf Participants took part. The main focus for the training was to empower deaf community to become future leaders. It is very crucial to empower Deaf people so that they can be able to represent themselves in different settings, in order to remove the belief that people with disabilities are not capable in representing themselves. Several types of leadership styles were introduced, so that they may be aware of other leadership styles that are dominating other members which sometimes might lead to organizational closure or divide the members due to conflicts arising within them. They were also trained about key components of effective leadership, skills of comprehensive leadership development, roles of leadership and skills necessary for organization that need to be done by a leader.
