Celebration of International Disability Day

To prepare for International Disability Day, three of the SHG prepared power point presentations on the Arabic Sign Language Alphabet and numbers. These were used as a tool for their play for the celebration of International Disability Day held on Friday 5^th December in El Buss. After teaching the alphabet in sign language, members of the audience were asked to introduce themselves in sign language, say their age and what they liked. It was interesting to see the difference in those who knew already and those who didn’t. The activity raised the awareness and sparked and interest for those who had not previously known the alphabet.

The event started with a clown who entertained and danced with the children.

They were all delighted to interact with him, and their day got better when they went off to join the activities planned by the community for them. There was face painting, colouring in, pasta art and more. To add a twist to the day and raise awareness, each child had a partner, and they would take it in turns at being blindfolded for one activity and having their partner lead them, or at having their hands tied behind their back in the next activity and instructing their partner what they would like done for them.

The older group started their session with a discussion about a jet ski race that all participants except one, pulled out of because of heavy fog. The one who didn’t pull out was blind, so it made no difference to him. This sparked a discussion about abilities and was a good awareness raising tool. Following is the link to the British Red Cross website with the English version of the Jet ski lesson plan, and attached is the Arabic Translation.Jet Ski Arabic

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The next activity for the older group was a maths competition given and answered in sign language after being taught the alphabet. The participants were very eager to communicate in sign language and a bit frustrated by the lack of ease of answering. The event was a good awareness raiser and now, 6 of the participants will take the activities back to their communities to work on awareness raising there.

The SHG has a break now for Eid and Christmas, but will be back in the new year with more activities to raise awareness on the Right to Education for Children with Disabilities.

International Disability Day

Photos of the Arabic alphabet in sign language were taken today by two pairs of helpful hands which will feature on this website. They were taken for two reasons:

1: To add to the website for people interested in Arabic to learn

2: To use as a teaching tool, first of all for the celebration of International Disability Day on the 3^rd December and for the SHG to use in the future as a teaching tool.

Our helpful hands also made a short video of numbers and the days of the week.

As the parents of the SHG prefer that their children’s pictures are not published on the web, a small toy was used to show how to ‘sign’ the days of the week, as the hands need to be close to the face. This toy will continue to help us as we add extra sign language each week.

After the photography session, the rest of the group met to organise themselves to participate in the celebration of International Disability Day.

Their first activity will be a short skit of a classroom in which the students are learning sign language. They will use the photos taken to assist them and at the end ask members of the audience to introduce themselves in sign language as they will have learnt from watching the play.

There second activity, when the audience splits into two groups of children and youth, will be a more in depth teaching session of sign language to the youth in the activity. They will also facilitate a maths competition given and answered in sign language.

Finally, the will participate with the other youth in a discussion highlighting the capabilities of people with special needs, which will be hosted by our Supporting Committee of parents.

Check out the website www.itsourright.blogspot.com next week for an animated clip of Arabic Sign Language.