What’s special about the football in a football match for blind teams?

In mid-august I spent four days on this FA Level 1 Coaching Course to help equip deaf role model to develop football skills in deaf 10-14 year olds. The course was well delivered, fun and accessible for all ages, abilities & preferred communication styles. There was a wealth of intensive signing practice and I gained some really useful resources to equip me to use football as a vehicle to introduce Ugandan Sign Language with the isolated deaf next year. I can see a deaf football tournament overseas!

It was interesting to meet other deaf adults working in sport, to learn about national deaf football, the deaflympics and efforts being made to increase participation amongst under-represented groups in football, such as the deaf, the blind, amputees etc
(Answer to Q: the ball contains ball-bearings so that it makes a sound when it moves)

How many of the the last 800years has Estonia been occupied by a foreign power?

We visited Estonia to earn from some very successful hearing-deaf partnerships there.

We learnt much from the deaf couples, projects and supporters (pictured) we met in Talinn, Estonia. We had no common spoken language at all. All we had was our native sign-languages, i.e. British, Estonian and Russian! Yet communication was quite easy, and so much fun too.

The Estonian sign for England is not one many Brits. would have chosen!Estonia’s 20th Century history is unbelievable.. We’ve invited them over next year.

(Ans. to Q1: about 700 years)

Interest grows at our kids' school and at the Arua Deaf School

We met the deputy head where all our children go currently, to discuss their schooling and seek their support with some distance-learning resources for when our children are in Arua. They were very positive and even talked about a possible exchange visit!


This week we've applied for visas for our Uganda strategy trip, which takes place in November. That's when I (Adam) will be going out to prepare for our trip, and get more of an idea about how we're going to take the work forward in Arua. We need to pinpoint exactly how we're going to link in to the work there - hopefully via the Deaf School. They already have Ugandan sign language and we're very much hoping they'll share their expertise with us. I managed to get through to the school for a brief chat so they know I'm coming in November at least.

“Can you help me teach these deaf children? – We have no way of communicating”

This plea by humble but passionate bush-village teacher, Margaret (above left), desperate to release the potential of the two deaf children in her class of 80 plus (right) was a key moment for us back in Aug.07 on our first and next trip to Arua district, North Uganda…












We invited Margaret, to join us on a visit we ‘happened’ to be making later that week to Arua one of North Uganda’s few schools for the Deaf (pictured below), where we all learnt much more about the needs of deaf youth and adults too..







“Ugandan deaf people lack tools to communicate, learn, earn, and participate!”-

Was the repeated message we got as we have travelled across Arua.

We discovered that:
· The above-average no. of deaf people in West Nile is partly due to preventable causes, such as lack of childhood vaccines, poor ear hygiene awareness and the mal-administration of drugs.

· Ugandan Sign Language (U.S.L.) is in print, but it is unknown, unaffordable and un-usable by communities with deaf people, who mostly live in bush villages and can’t read.

· There are few carers for the deaf in communities and they have sparse resources.

· Most deaf youth/ adults are without employment or respect in their community.

Uganda deaf people are often misunderstood, frustrated and lonely. - Isolated!
Was the repeated impression we had as we listened to numerous deaf and their carers. We discovered that deaf people’s personal, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development needs are unmet! Their vulnerability to neglect or abuse or environmental hazards also increases. This situation, we have learnt, is common in other developing/war-torn countries too!


“Would you come and teach this language to my deaf villagers?”

- Exclaimed the Arua Town shopkeeper, Helen, amazed, as she handed us our Ugandan Sign Language Manuals. She’d had to order them from Entebbe, 300+ miles away! This comment emphasised the widespread need again.



Our visit reflected some Global deaf statistics I'd read before:

Approximately 250 million people have severe or profound hearing loss.
. . . and more than two-thirds of them live in the Third World.

70 million people are profoundly deaf . . .
. . . and over 80 % of these have no access to education.

90% of the deaf have hearing parents . . .
. . . and only 1 in 10 of these parents can communicate with their child in sign language.