City group to travel to Minsk for Deaf song festival

From: Aberdeen City, UK - Oct 7, 2005

Members of Aberdeen's Deaf community are to travel to Minsk to take part in the International Festival of Sign Songs.

The party will visit Belarus from October 19-23 to take part in the festival in Minsk, where they will be joined by Deaf people from Aberdeen's twin city of Gomel.

The Aberdeen delegates - Kathleen Cameron, Scott Cameron, Gerry Malley, Norma Hunter and Jim Hunter - will work with other people who communicate by using sign language to develop their sign-song skills and perform together.

The annual festival, which is now in its fifth year, aims to give Deaf people from different countries the chance to make new friends and contacts, and share creative ideas.

The trip is being partly funded by Aberdeen City Council's international budget, with the balance being met by the five participants.

Aberdeen is twinned with five cities around the world: Clermont-Ferrand (France), Stavanger (Norway), Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) and Regensburg (Germany), as well as Gomel.

These twinning relationships help to promote the fostering of international understanding while developing social and economic links in areas such as culture, commerce, science, tourism, education and sport.

©Aberdeen City Council