| Belgium-Fevlado Fevlado Established: 21 April 1977 Full member of EUD since: 1985 Address: Stropkaai 38, 9000 Gent, Belgium Contact details: Email: info@fevlado.be Tel: +32 9 224 46 76 Fax: +32 9 329 07 47 Website link: http://www.fevlado.be
Mission statement of the organisation We are aware that:
What we want to do
How are we going to do this
Why Fevlado?
By aiming for this mission, Fevlado vzw wants to support a society where the values of pluralism, tolerance and mutual respect are central.
Details of the Board President: Filip Verstraete (D) Attached to Fevlado, there are also two other organizations, Fevlado-Diversus and Fevlado-Passage. Fevlado-Diversus is a socio-cultural organization which organises (among other things) Deaf culture courses and Flemish Sign Language courses. Fevlado-Passage provides individual service and assistance for Deaf people. Each of these two organisations have their own staff.
Statistics General Population of your country? (Including hearing people): Belgium (general population: 10,000,000 people) is divided into two main regions: Flanders and Wallonia. Fevlado works for the Flemish region. There are 6,000,000 people in Flanders. Official or approximate figures of the number of Deaf people living in your country? 800,000 people in Flanders have some sort of audiological problem (so this also includes deafened people, old people, etc.) Official or approximate numbers of Deaf people who use sign language as their primary language? Between 4,000 and 6,000 in Flanders. How many people are members of the NAD? 1,252 (in 2008) Does your National Association of the Deaf publish any magazine or newsletters for your members? Yes, "Dovennieuws" (Deaf News), a bimonthly magazine. Does your National Association of the Deaf have Youth section? Yes, Jong-Fevlado.
Status of Sign Language Is Sign Language legally recognised as part of your Government's constitution? No, but Flemish Sign Language (VGT) is recognised (since 26 April 2006) by the Flemish government as a language in Flanders.
Status of Sign Language Interpreters Approximate number of qualified sign language interpreters: There are probably about 200 qualified sign language interpreters in Flanders. 126 of them are considered active. Details of training centre/courses: At the moment there are two interpreter trainings, one in Ghent and one in Mechelen. This is a four year training (but not full-time). It is organised by centres for ‘adult education' comparable to community colleges or centres for lifelong learning. The problem is that these centres don't have the same level as universities, and the courses are taught mostly in the evening or weekends. In September 2008, a new sign language interpreter training started at the ‘Lessius Hogeschool' in Antwerp. This is the first university-level interpreter training. Students have to choose 3 languages, of which the third language can be VGT.
Technology Does your country provide Video Interpreting Service? Not yet. If not, when will it be implemented? We hope to do so in the near future.
Deaf centre/clubs How many deaf centres/clubs? 14 Deaf clubs. Six of them have a regional office and have their own meeting centre. The other eight rent a building. All of them are members of Fevlado. Details of the deaf centre/clubs: The six regional Deaf clubs are located in Antwerpen, Gent, Brugge, Kortrijk, Turnhout and Hasselt (the greater cities). Each club has a youth club, a sports club, a club for old Deaf people, a women club and some have a club for Deaf children. The other eight Deaf clubs are located in the smaller cities.
Universities/Sign Language Units Are there any universities that deal with Sign Language? (Deaf Studies, Linguistics, Interpreting) Two Flemish sign linguists who have done a considerable amount of sign language research (and are still doing so), are (were) working within the Free University of Brussel and the University of Ghent. Also since 1992, VGT is an optional course within the BA Linguistics at the Free University of Brussel. Since 2005, at the University of Ghent an optional course "Introduction in Flemish Sign Language" is offered. In the academic year 2006-2007, an introductory course on Deaf Culture was taught at the University of Antwerp for all interested students and staff members. As stated above, from September 2008 onwards, students can choose VGT as a language in the BA Linguistics at the Lessius Hogeschool in Antwerp (VGT as second foreign language). During these first three years, they will study the three languages profoundly. After that, they can start an MA course in sign language interpreting. There is no formal Deaf Studies training in Flanders.
Deaf Schools Number of Deaf Schools: 8 Education method (Sign Language, Oral or other methods): 5 schools use the oral method and/or Total Communication or Signed Dutch. Two schools are using a bicultural-bilingual education method. However, the education method that is used in those 8 schools is often linked to the language competencies of the individual teachers.
History of the NAD After the Milan conference in 1880, Flemish Deaf people began to organise themselves. In 1901, a new Belgian Deaf Federation was founded, but did not last very long due to conflicts between Flanders and Wallonia. In 1936, the Ministry of Social Care ordered the establishing of a research committee on the "problems of deaf and blind people". The members of this committee established two new federations: "Alliance" (the liberal federation) and "Navekados" (the Catholic federation - National Union of the Catholic Deaf and Dumb). Founding members and board members of Navekados were hearing missioners who had a strong paternalistic attitude towards Deaf people. There was no lobbying concerning Flemish Sign Language. However, the collaboration between the Alliance and Navekados was not very well, and after World War II the Alliance disappeared. In the seventies, the political structure of Belgium began to change and two new parliaments were established (a Flemish parliament and a Walloon parliament). In order to keep government funding, the Deaf organisations had to follow this structure. Thus, two new federations were established: Fenedo (Federation of Dutch-speaking Deaf associations) and FASS (the Walloon federation). (Navekados would gradually disappear.) Fenedo started lobbying for "signs" again (although it meant Total Communication and not sign language). In 1983, Fenedo got 12 payed employees subsidized by the Ministry of Work. In 1986, Fenedo changed its name to Fevlado. Sometime before the year 2000, a new Belgian Deaf federation was established, solely meant for facilitating Belgian membership of WFD and EUD. However in 2005, this Belgian Deaf federation ceased to exist. Fevlado and FFSB (the current Walloon Deaf federation) agreed to establish a Belgian structure "Fevlado-FFSB", to be able to join the WFD. However, during the last WFD conference in Madrid in 2007, Belgian applied with the WFD to be able to join as two separate regions: Flanders and Wallonia. At the moment, the WFD is considering this. There are many people who have been important in our country's history, for Deaf education, establishing of the Deaf federation, the interpreter training, the interpreter office, campaigning, research and so on.
Last updated: 22 Jan 2010 |
