Promotion of migrant deaf people’s health

educational actions developed by the MiSordo Program

Abstract

This report aims to address the health promotion of deaf migrants from Venezuela, and it is based on the educational actions and experiences carried out in December 2023 at the 1st Seminar on Health Care for Deaf Migrants, within the scope of the university extension developed by the Interinstitutional Extension and Research Program to Support Deaf Migrants and Refugees (MiSordo), linked to the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR) and the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA). The objective of this action was to offer information on health promotion in sign languages and to provide basic health services to the deaf community, as well as provide a collaborative participation to the professionals and academics involved, both in the organization and in the implementation of the action. Although Brazil has public policies for health access for migrants and refugees, deaf migrants face many challenges in accessing health information and also the public health system. Thus, the work developed was aligned with one of the axes of the MiSordo Program, which is to provide deaf migrants and refugees in situations of social vulnerability with access to information and qualified content regarding the promotion of human rights in Brazil. As a result, the seminar was able to offer services and information in sign languages to the deaf community, highlighting how outreach actions are crucial to mitigating gaps in public policies, proving to be a potentializer and an instrument of social inclusion for underserved groups.