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Heard & Understood

Heard & Understood
14-Nov

I attended the soft opening of the UAE’s first Sign Language club at Pomegranate Institute called ‘ Sign a Sign’ and I felt inspired, and I feel more aware now. I realized that people who are mute and deaf should be more integrated into society, should be able to communicate, and should be able to be heard. Just like every single person on this earth. Though this can only happen if we all learn Sign language.

Companies should have staff that sign, hospitals should have nurses and doctors that sign, restaurants should have waiters and waitresses that sign, and the community as a whole should be able to sign across all levels & sector!

I realized that the fact that our brothers and sisters cannot hear or speak does not mean that they cannot be a part of our daily lives.

I also learned that sign language is a language to learn, just like English, Spanish, or Chinese. For that reason, learning a sign language is equivalent to learning any other language. The only difference is that to master sign language, it would only need an average of six months!

Another interesting fact I learned that I would love to share with the world is that sign language has a lot of benefits. We could all agree that we were put in situations where we are in a noisy environment, and we cannot hear each other. Sign language then is a great solution for those kinds of moments.

Also, it is very common amongst children to develop speech at a late age, including some of my family members. At that time the specialist gave many temporary solutions, and one of them was sign language. She instructed us to on how that could work as a great alternative method of communication with our little ones. It was beautiful to witness how that turned out, and now we have a fully-grown boy that speaks Arabic, English, and American Sign Language!

We need more Sign language learners, to have more Sign language teachers, to have a community that is proud to say, “We are a community that believes, we all should be understood, and we all should be heard.”

Let us unite to learn & educate!

 

Sarah Tabbara,
Marketing & Sales Executive - Social Unicorn
Pomegranate Institute