Unseen Disabilities – Providing Youth with Disabilities Access to SRHR Information in South Asia

Youth Lead and Y-Peer Asia-Pacific and Disabilities 2030 will implement activities focused on increasing awareness around SRHR for young people with disabilities with a particular focus on the deaf community by implementing awareness campaigns and building the capacity of peer educators, government officials and civil society organizations in Nepal, Bhutan, and Pakistan.

The premise of this project centers around addressing a gap in current SRHR information and services that often exclude the needs of the deaf community. Y-Peer ensures that deaf young people take the lead on designing and creating content for the campaigns, while also leading capacity building sessions.

Various regional and national studies indicate several barriers to accessing comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) both in and out of school, in many countries across Asia-Pacific. The situation for deaf young people is worse as deaf schools do not have updated (and in some cases any) RH information within school curricula. Further, existing health services and centers lack appropriate services such as sign language interpreters for deaf young people making access more challenging.