In this page; Workshop Report, Background of this initiative, Organizers List
For the first time in the history, the ?Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on Hard of Hearing and Deafened? was organized jointly by Danishkadah (Pakistan), Center for Research and Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (CED) (Vietnam), Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), at APCD Training Building from 29 February to 2 March 2012.
The aim of this workshop was to facilitate people who are hard of hearing and deafened in Asia pacific to found their own regional platform. A platform to unite voices of millions of people who are hard of hearing (HOH) and deafened, raise awareness and protect their rights in Asia and Pacific region.
In this workshop the representatives who are hard of hearing and deafened from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and Vietnam founded thier regional network named Asia-Pacific Federation of the Hard of Hearing and Deafened (APFHD).
Danishkadah played a main role in starting this regional movement of Hard of Hearing and Deafened, in Asia-Pacific (AP). In 2007 the president of Danishkadah who got empowered on networking by APCD, in 2005, had opportunity to attend a study course organized by International Federation of Hard of Hearing Young People (IFHOHYP) in Hungary.
There he observed how young hard of hearing people are struggling to protect their right and interest, mostly in Europe and Canada. On return he tried to find and contact organizations of hard of hearing people in Asia-Pacific region but realized there is no movement of HOH in AP region.
So he started networking HOH people by utilizing internet and APCD network in the region. In 2008 he found Association of Late-Deafened Adult (ALDA) Inc. and got to know about deafened people. Since he was already networking HOH people and found some of them were deafened just like him, he founded a group of ALDA in Asia Pacific and networked HOH and deafened people.
Then he started encouraging and discussing with peers to form the regional platform of hard of hearing and deafened people. Finally in 2012 the dream of regional organization of hard of hearing and deafened become reality when HOH and deafened representative from 10 countries founded Asia-Pacific Federation of Hard of Hearing and Deafened (APFHD) in a workshop organized by Danishkadah, CED, APCD, and JICA jointly.
