#SayItWithASign campaign highlights the power & beauty of sign language

NGO United Way Chennai is back with a host of events through June. This time the theme is #SayItWithASign.

Find the beauty in communicating through sign this June. All through June, NGO United Way Chennai (UWC) is bringing alive the beauty of sign language in a campaign called #SayItWithASign.

As per the National Medical Journal of India, there are over 11 lakh people with disabilities in Tamil Nadu, of which one-fifth are people with hearing impairments. Using the power of social media, the campaign will share short, simple videos with everyday phrases like ‘What is your name?, ‘Can we meet tomorrow?, and ‘All the best’, among others. The idea being to encourage everyone to use sign language to communicate on a daily basis. This way more people get to know about sign language and more importantly, learn it!

The #SayItWithASign campaign, of which NewzHook is a media partner, is part of UWC’s larger initiative called Know My Ability conducted as part of the Day of Action celebrated by United Way Worldwide (UWW) in June around the world.

Currently in its second year, Know My Ability, is an initiative for and by people with disabilities. The idea is to change the perception about disability and disabled people by recognising them for their ability and offer a platform where the community can showcase their skills and talents.

UWC has partnered with Deaf Enabled Foundation (DEF) to conduct workshops for volunteers to train and certify 300 volunteers in level 1 of sign language. Apart from sign language workshops, UWC brings together volunteers from various corporates, schools and colleges and of course people with disabilities to conduct four major activities in June.

As part of the campaign, UWC is running a #handsupchallenge where people are invited to choose any sign language video, tag their friends, shoot the same vide and tag UWC.

It is our responsibility to create an inclusive world where everyone can achieve their full potential. By making small changes we can transform the lives of people with disability. It is hard to imagine how crippling it is not to access spaces, not to be able to communicate with another person, not to be able get move around independently. It is all these barriers that are preventing people with disabilities from achieving their full potential and it is very much in our hands to fix it. – Archana Raghuram, Executive Director- CEO of United Way Chennai

So, here’s a list of some activities you can look forward to through June:

• PAINT-A-THONThis will be held every Saturday in June. Walls of homes of people with disabilities will be painted, so this promises to be a splash of fun.
• Your Voice, Their Vision – An opportunity to volunteer to record audio books. These will be shared with visually impaired people and is open to all age groups.
• Learning en-ABLED: Action-based workshop where 50 people with disabilities will conduct yoga workshops on International Yoga Day. They will also conduct workshops on making eco-friendly articles.

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN: Click on this link to sign up: https://forms.gle/Qxw5WjN2zqF6maLq7 or email Nethra at nethra.gupta@unitedwaychennai.org