An exhibition of things made by persons with hearing impairments was mounted inside the building of the Association of the Deaf of Moldova. According to the organizers, the message of the event is that the persons with hearing impairments can and want to work. A guidebook designed to facilitate communication with potential employers was launched as part of the event, IPN reports.

Natalia Babici, vice president of the Association of the Deaf, said it is hard for a person with hearing impairments to discuss with potential employers and this guidebook will ease communication between them. The brochure contains images with sign language elements and their explanation in examples of dialogue between the employer and the employee.

Dumitru Vînaga is 19. He paints and sculpts. For a period he worked at a workshop, but now runs his own business. He sells his paintings and sculptures in the country and this is his main source of livelihood. The young man decided to open his own workshop so as not to depend on an employer.

Daniela Cojocari, 18, is looking for a job. She graduated from a special school for persons with hearing impairments and a vocational school where she learned how to become a masseur.

“The persons with hearing impairments have working capacities and want to work, as their mates want,” said Ruslan Lopatiuc, president of the Association of the Deaf of Moldova.

Radu Rebeja, secretary of state at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, said in society there are many stereotypes and it is believed that the persons with disabilities do not have sufficient professional training and they encounter difficulties in integrating into professional communities. “It is our task to prove the opposite,” he stated.

“The persons with disabilities show that they have abilities that should be developed. This event highlights the potential of the persons with hearing impairments and is designed to help them realize this potential,” stated Anastasia Ocheretnyi, secretary of state at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection.

According to the Association of the Deaf, in Moldova there are about 5,000 persons with hearing impairments, both children and grownups.