As we near the end of a week long program, our final Plenary presenters covered the two commissions of Developing Countries and Health.

With most deaf people around the world living in low-to-middle-income countries, the interesting Ms Njelekela Ashura MICHAEL of Kenya explored the barriers faced, especially in the justice system, and encouraged deaf communities to liaise with international non-profit organizations such as WFD, WHO and many others. She also pointed out that quality of education in developing countries needs special focus as less than 10% of deaf persons in developing countries have access to education and only 1,2% have access to higher education. The forever engaging and insightful Dr Cathy CHOVAZ of Canada highlighted the diagnoses of the mental health of deaf people by medical professionals. She urged that the medical profession must be able to communicate in sign language in order to carry out proper diagnoses.