The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) Board wishes to announce the appointment of Ms Hend Al-Showaier from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as the new Regional Director for the WFD Interim Regional Secretariat for the Arab Region.

In May 2014, WFD Board Member Dr Joseph Murray and WFD Human Rights Officer Ms Eeva Tupi, conducted a five-day workshop on human rights for Ordinary Members from the Maghreb Arab region. Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Algeria and Morocco each sent two representatives to this workshop, which was financially supported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the WFD.

Representatives in attendance strongly recommended that a deaf person be appointed as Regional Director of the RSAR. The above recommendation was discussed at our recent WFD Board Meeting in Moscow, Russian Federation. At this meeting, the WFD Board appointed Ms Hend Al Showaier from Saudi Arabia, who is deaf, as the Regional Director. This appointment became effective 4 August 2014.

The WFD Board and the WFD Secretariat wish to convey their gratitude to Dr Ghassan Shahrour for his many years of commitment as past Director of the WFD Interim Regional Secretariat for the Arab Region.

In July, 2015, during the XVII World Congress of the WFD in Istanbul, Turkey, the member associations of the WFD Interim Regional Secretariat for the Arab Region will meet to confirm their 2015-2019 work-plan for the Arab region.