While making the promotional video for HAD I had the chance to learn a lot more about how HAD functions and what it does. I started off by Interviewing Le Van Anh, the head of the deaf association. I asked him what the main activities of the organization were and was shocked to realize that I had only understood about half of what the association does. It turns out there are five sub groups within HAD. There is a sports league, a youth group, a women’s group, a deaf education group and a middle aged group. I had the opportunity to interview the head of the sports league and the women’s issues today and I think these two groups really highlight what HAD cares about and the problems the deaf face.
Sports club:
The sports club is headed by Khanh and receives a small amount of funding from HAD. The rest of the money is supplied by individual members who want to participate in sports. Therefore the sports club kind of runs on an on-and-off basis. There are about 70-80 members in the HAD sports club. The main sport is soccer, but occasionally they get enough money for track and field, swimming, bowling etc. While the sports league may just seem like a fun thing historically deaf sports leagues have been crucial in forming bonds between deaf people in other regions and increasing the political clout of the deaf.
The sports league in HAD is no different. One of the major goals of the group is to set up competitions with other deaf sports teams so that they have the chance to meet and socialize. There are around 6-8 other deaf sports teams in northern Vietnam that they compete with when they have the money. The bonds with these sports teams have extended to the point where many of those deaf organizations came to visit for HAD’s 10 year anniversary. The sports club also wants to compete with deaf associations in southern Vietnam but doesn’t have the money to travel there. There was one competition in Hue in 2003 or 4 where the team won a metal but since then there haven’t been many major competitions with deaf people from throughout Vietnam. I think this sort of national deaf sports competition would be particularly beneficial because in general there are few opportunities for deaf people from southern and northern Vietnam to interact.
issues today and I think these two groups really highlight what HAD cares about and the problems the deaf face.
Sports club:
The sports club is headed by Khanh and receives a small amount of funding from HAD. The rest of the money is supplied by individual members who want to participate in sports. Therefore the sports club kind of runs on an on-and-off basis. There are about 70-80 members in the HAD sports club. The main sport is soccer, but occasionally they get enough money for track and field, swimming, bowling etc. While the sports league may just seem like a fun thing historically deaf sports leagues have been crucial in forming bonds between deaf people in other regions and increasing the political clout of the deaf.
The sports league in HAD is no different. One of the major goals of the group is to set up competitions with other deaf sports teams so that they have the chance to meet and socialize. There are around 6-8 other deaf sports teams in northern Vietnam that they compete with when they have the money. The bonds with these sports teams have extended to the point where many of those deaf organizations came to visit for HAD’s 10 year anniversary. The sports club also wants to compete with deaf associations in southern Vietnam but doesn’t have the money to travel there. There was one competition in Hue in 2003 or 4 where the team won a metal but since then there haven’t been many major competitions with deaf people from throughout Vietnam. I think this sort of national deaf sports competition would be particularly beneficial because in general there are few opportunities for deaf people from southern and northern Vietnam to interact.
Women’s Issues:
There are currently three women on the board of HAD who are all involved in advocating for woman's issues in some way. However the person who is officially in charge of women's issues is Linh. In her interview she talked about many of the problems deaf women in vietnam face. She talked about their comparatively low pay, lack of job opportunities and mental health issues. She also talked about about some problems that are particular to Vietnam like women being expected to stay at their inlaw's houses to work and therefore not being able to actively participate in the deaf association. One thing that was particularly interesting is that she said there are many single deaf women because many parents of deaf boys choose a hearing girl for their son to mary. While she aims to set up a women's group and a parents group she has had significant difficulties because women's participation in HAD is not consistent. Whenever there is a problem at home women are expected to take care of it, forcing them to miss HAD meetings.
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