This year our team has worked on the following activities:

Theme of the Deaf Week 2010 was: “Sign Language is a Language” (related to the new constitution: “Article 7(3)(b) & 120 (1)  Kenyan Sign Language is one of the official Languages in Parliament“).

During the Deaf Week in September 2010 we made some progress in the area of public relations: In Maseno (especially at Maseno market place) we distributed flyers, people discussed about Sign Language and Deafness, and foot- and volleyball games were organized. In other parts of Kenya people, groups and associations  organized and arranged a lot of activities as well (see pictures).

The children’s home: a small office was built on the land. Now we hope that we can start very soon with the construction of the children’s home. We are working on some applications.

Workshops for parents and relatives of Deaf children were again organized. The finger alphabet and some signs from different areas (related to school, home, food, animals etc.) were taught. Furthermore we discussed general questions about Deafness and everyone exchanged personal experiences.

We are also happy to say now that some more children have the possibility to attend school because of new sponsors. Thank you very much!

Plans and Ideas

Some meetings were held to discuss further steps of the projects and the children’s home:

We plan to open a Sign Language school in January 2011 in Kisumu near the Deaf Church. There some volunteers (like Deaf teachers) are going to teach the Kenyan Sign Language. We have a lot of requests and already started with some smaller classes.

We want to print cards and flyers and distribute them within the area of Maseno and Kisumu. We hope for more support from people in this area. More ideas came up: printing and selling T-shirts. The benefit will be used for our projects and the children’s home.

Also we want to organize more workshops and seminars for parents and relatives of Deaf children.

Coming up events

Christmas, New Year’s Eve, National Sports Event for the Deaf and Deafblind (March 2011).

Donations like toys, clothes, anything related to sports  are welcome  and will be distributed to the children. We kindly request friends of Kids of Maseno to support us.

Thank you very much for the big help. We are looking back on a successful year 2010. Let’s continue working together in the same way!

Austine