Supporting the rights of the deaf

By Venessa Deosaran

For more than eight years, the Support Group for Deaf Persons has continuously provided a platform for deaf persons to be heard.
Director of the group, Leon Walcott said it developed as a result of a partnership effort between the Guyana Community Based Rehabilitation Programme (GCBRP) and the International Deaf Children Society of the United Kingdom.
Walcott is also the editor of ‘Hopeful Steps’ the official newsletter of the GCBRP. The group is an important part of the GCBRP and was established on June 4, 2005, where eight persons met at the St Stanislaus College on Brickdam to plan activities to help spread deaf awareness.
The director joined the disability movement in 2001 and brought to it the same enthusiasm that he has with his other professions.
It may be coincidental that since Walcott has come on board, there has been increased awareness of the disability movement in Guyana, especially where issues relating to deaf persons are concerned.
He himself was born with peroneal muscular atrophy, which causes the muscles to waste away. It has now left him unable to walk unaided and partially paralysed in one hand.
He was also born with an excessively curved spine which has limited him to a wheelchair. He can very well relate to the difficulty others like him have to face on a daily basis.
In 2002, he joined GCBRP, the largest disability organisation in the country. Since then he has been giving motivational talks and helping to facilitate workshops aimed at assisting persons with disabilities.

“My desire is to improve the lives of persons living with disabilities. When the group started we had our first deaf awareness day later on in 2005 and since then we have had various deaf awareness activities. What has become a norm is the deaf awareness week which is observed during the last week in September. We generally focus on the schools countrywide. We maintain contact with all these schools. We have been getting good support from the business groups. We have seen a heightened awareness in recent times and we appreciate this,” Walcott told Guyana Times Sunday Magazine . The group provides training in sign language, organizes leadership training programmes, helps deaf persons to have better access to educational, health, social and other services, increases the number of deaf advocates, supports the empowerment of deaf persons, and promotes fellowship, friendship and academic achievement.
Walcott stated that the group includes relatives and friends of deaf persons. It helps to develop the leadership potential of deaf persons, teaches them social skills, trains them to be self advocates, provides a forum for fun and recreation, encourages and promotes communication, language development and basic sign language within the family, provides regular contact with positive deaf role models, gives families insight into deafness and deaf awareness and enables the deaf child to develop confidence and self esteem. The group arranges lectures, gatherings, workshops and activities for the deaf.
Walcott is thankful to the various media houses for lending support to deaf awareness. He is also grateful to the former president Bharrat Jagdeo who fast-tracked the Disability Act which is very instrumental to deaf awareness.
Since 2008, the Support Group for Deaf Persons has implemented a community based deaf awareness action project on the East Bank of Demerara in partnership with USAID which has been very fruitful.
The group is currently implementing a ‘Train the Sign Language Initiative- Advancing Deaf Education’ in partnership with the Ministry of Education.
There is much more Walcott said that needs to be done for the deaf, and so he is urging all those who can help to join in advocating for the deaf and contribute to their development. (Taken from Guyna Times Sunday Magazine)