An end to activities

It is with great sorrow that I write to close this blog. The higher powers to be have decided to put an end to the teaching activities of the Self Help Group. The activity was a great exchange between children with and without disabilities and for the teachers involved in the classes and I hope that they will carry this memory with them for any further interactions they have with people with speech and hearing impairments and to approach such situations with confidence and sensitivity.

Thanks to all who gave feedback to the blog.

Invitiations for workshops

Today, a group of enthusiastic children from ‘Study Station’ Dbayeh, participated in a workshop given by the Self Help Group (SHG) on the Arabic sign language alphabet, numbers and self introductions.

This was the second time the SHG has officially been invited to give workshops and one positive step towards the a future of giving professional workshops on sign language and inclusion.

Thanks to our hosts, Joint Christian Committee in Dbayeh and praise to the SHG for their courage and professionalism.

Summer activities

The summer has been filled with both activities and most importantly for some of the Self Help Group, work! For those not working, they have taken part in a photography workshop to explore diversity and tolerance and volunteered at a fund raising activity which took place over two days. The idea of the event was to create a child friendly space for both Lebanese and Palestinian children with and without disabilities to interact and play together and share in a talent show and other activities. The event was opened by the Mayor of Sur and the Sunni, Shia and Christian leaders of the community. UNIFIL and many NGO's were involved in the event and many businesses helped with sponsorship or prizes. It was an event which encompassed the whole community and laid the foundations for future events.

Other activities have included making a small movie like presentation for each school that we taught at last year to thank them for their genuine enthusiasm and participation and over the last few weeks of summer we will be preparing more materials and training the SHG to train teachers on internet safety.

Over the last year, the SHG have become a confident group of trainers and we hope to find new areas in which they can give trainings that will hopefully become a future source of employment for them.

Could things get better?

Our second visit to the schools with Group B was as positive as the first. The children had revised the alphabet and wanted to know how to introduce themselves. This lesson will come later though, so after revision and before starting with numbers, the students were asked to spell the numbers using sign language. There was no shortage of enthusiasm from any of the three schools, again with students jumping out of their seats to participate and then also guess how to make the sign in Arabic. The teacher’s from the classes following told us they should teach in sign language if the children are this enthusiastic, while other’s invited us to their classes to teach. A big thanks to the Self Help Group who have worked so hard to get to this point.

First classes in UNRWA schools

Today was the first day of teaching Arabic sign language in UNRWA schools. Needless to say it didn’t come without a few bumps along the way, but power cuts are to be expected in Lebanon and the Self Help Group didn’t appear to be the slightest bit phased when the power went and they couldn’t use the microphone or power point presentation they prepared. In fact, they continued on asking the students to guess what the letters would be and even when the power came back, there was very little reliance on the power point presentation.

Tahani was confident in her role and encouraging the students, Fatmeh moved about the classroom confidently motivating students to participate, and Khodor, also moved about the classroom self assuredly, taking photos and helping the students with the sign language alphabet.

Most teachers will know that it takes time to gain the confidence to walk around a classroom and fully interact with the children, but the SHG looked like they had been teachers for years and the children responded incredibly well, all wanting to guess the answers and practically jumping out of their seats to be chosen to come to the front of the class.
As we continue our work, the children will not only gain awareness of sign language and difficulties that speech and hearing impaired people face, but will truly have the skills to interact with them in a natural way. It was a moment to be proud of in the project for the ‘Right to Education for people with disabilities’.

Introducing ourselves to the students

Wednesday 22^nd April, the SHG coordinator, Tahani and I visited the three schools we will work in to introduce the idea of our lessons. Pointing to Australia on a world map, I introduced myself and where I came from, then asked the class which language we spoke in Australia. We then pointed to other countries such as China and Italy and asked which languages they spoke there. After this we clarified with the class that there are more than just one language in the world and different ways to communicate. We then asked the students how people who can’t hear or speak would communicate. They were very good at guessing and genuinely interested in listening to Tahani who told them the subjects we would teach them over the coming months. Tahani seemed confident in the class and I showed the potential to be a great teacher in the future.

Practice teaching run

Monday 30^th March the Self Help Group and their mothers got together to celebrate Mother’s and Children’s Day. The Professional and Inclusive committees are made up mostly of the parents of children attending Nabil Badran Centre, and the lunch was opened by a speech from one of the mother’s in the inclusive committee. She spoke about her participation in the group and how it gave her the opportunity to be an agent of change for children with disabilities and called on all mother’s there to join the groups and get involved.

Monday’s event was followed by a practice teaching session for the Self Help Group who will start teaching sing language in three UNRWA schools on the 22^nd of April. Their trial audience was made up of the managers and administration staff of Nabil Badran Centre and Women’s Humanitarian Organisation in Sur, the Right to Education project manager and World Vision’s Refugee project manager.

As some of the invited guests could not be there, it was decided to film the session and despite the pressure of standing up and teaching in front of everyone and having a camera directed at them, the Self Help Group excelled, showing confidence in their own abilities to succeed in their task.

It has been a positive week in the project to raise awareness for the ‘Right to Education for children with disabilities’.