Maureen Grew

Community Work with Deaf Children in Comayaguela, Honduras

Arrival Date: 20 February 2006

Return Date: 20 March 2006

In the information i-to-i give you before you leave the UK it says do not expect things to be as they are at home and be prepared to use your initiative - how right they are!

My internship was to the deaf school in Honduras. It was founded 17 years ago and has about 70 pupils from the age of 6 - 25 years. The mornings are given over to sign lessons, written work and simple maths. In the afternoon the older ones are taught a skill to help them find a job. These skills are hairdressing, manicure, pedicure, tailoring, sewing and carpentry. Each child receives a free lunch, for many the only good meal that they get in a day. The school receives financial support from American Churches and so is quite well resourced but is desperately lacking in space, electrical points and hygiene facilities.

My Spanish was not very good and my knowledge of Spanish sign language non- existent so you can imagine my horror when on the first morning I was shown into a classroom of 14 children aged 6 - 15, who could neither hear or speak , given a pointer, a whiteboard marker and told to teach them the sign alphabet!!. There was no other teacher present! Well there is nothing like being thrown in at the deep end.

The children seem to be graded on their ability to sign and this was the reception class so obviously some of them were not very good at it, so we learnt together. Many of them could not sign or write their names and that became my goal for the month and I was thrilled to achieve it before I left, a great sense of satisfaction for them and I. During the 4 weeks I was there I made matching picture/word cards which they seemed to enjoy playing with and I brought easy letter and numerical jig saws which were a great hit. After 2 weeks a new teacher arrived, she spoke Spanish but did not sign so we learnt together and having 2 of us in the class made such a difference to the children. 2 other teachers had also been employed and the older children moved on so we were left with 9 of the younger ones.

Numerousy was another problem, they could write numbers and simple tables down parrot fashion but could not relate to 1 being 1item, so we played with bottle tops and I made more cards with numbers etc on. This proved harder for them to understand.

In the afternoons I had a group of 6 girls with whom we made samplers using many different embroidery stitches, again some found it easy others really struggled.

Friday mornings meant a 15 minute walk to the local football field where the whole school and I participated in general exercises, which was fun. The boys then played football and the girls were supposed to play basketball, but they usually managed to sit in the shade and gossip.

The sports instructor worked at a school for blind children and he is a fantastic guy. One Saturday he had Kate (the other volunteer) and I helping at a marathon, dishing out water from a truck and picking up the stragglers. Children from both the deaf and blind school took part. Another day we helped run a party at the blind school.

Our weekends were spent out and about seeing as much of the local area as possible and I have to say that we met nothing but kindness and interest wherever we went. It is a very poor country and you are left with the feeling that you wish you could do more. My 4 week placement was immensely enjoyable adventure, gave me a great sense of purpose and I can't wait to do it again.