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April 27, 2004

Festival marks world deaf day

From: Gulf Daily News, Bahrain - Apr 27, 2004

By MONTHER AL ARRAYEDH

FESTIVITIES to mark International Deaf Day at the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) Rehabilitation Centre ended yesterday.

The centre's Sixth Annual Deaf Festival was held under the patronage of Assistant Under-Secretary for Social Affairs Shaikha Hind bint Salman Al Khalifa.

Festivities, which continued for two days, included games and competitions for children, a charity dish, an exhibition of devices for the disabled and an exhibition of products made by youngsters from the Shaikhan Al Farisi Centre for Total Communication and the BBK centre.

"The turnout was very good this year to the extent that there were people who requested us to extend the festival for another day," said BBK centre director Mahmood Al Dhaen.

Students from more than 20 private and public schools participated in organising the festival and helped in selling goods made by youngsters suffering from hearing impairment at the event.

"Almost all our products were sold. Visitors enjoyed their time and most importantly, the children had a great time," explained Mr Al Dhaen.

The festival is one of numerous activities that the centre is organising to mark the day.

"We will also organise a four-day competition on the Arabic radio station Bahrain Radio where people will be asked a question and, by answering it, they will be entitled to enter a draw to win valuable prizes," said Mr Al Dhaen.

"This will be followed by a three-day workshop on Monday to teach sign language to 21 nurses from hospitals and health centres all over Bahrain," he said.

"Doctors find it difficult to understand what deaf children who are ill suffer from, so we decided to hold this workshop at the Shaikhan Centre to teach nurses basic signs to help create a channel of communication between them and their patients.

"We also distributed posters explaining important signs to doctors in medical centres all over Bahrain."

Copyright © 2004, Gulf Daily News