The project, entitled “Using your hands to talk about sex”, was one of 22 projects wining prizes among 2,900 entries at the International Development Fair held in Washington D.C in the US in May 2007.

The project was made by the Vietnam World Population Foundation and the Xa Dan School - a home for hearing impaired students in Hanoi. It will be implemented within two years to educate young deaf Vietnamese people about sexual and reproductive health.

The project will use a comprehensive textbook on sexual and reproductive health which has been adjusted in line with the current situations and requirements of young deaf people in Vietnam.  In addition, it will make a sign language dictionary on this issue that will then be used in three training centres for 700 deaf people and 4 teachers. The project is also expected to be carried out nationwide to benefit all hearing impaired students in the country.

According to Mr Martin Rama, so far there has been no standard sign language dictionary on sexuality education for deaf people. Hence, this will be the first sign language dictionary in Asia, and this is a great innovation.

According to the latest statistics, Vietnam now has about 500,000 deaf people aged under 24, who have very little access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services.