This week is ‘Deaf Awareness Week’ and Cambridgeshire Deaf Association (CDA) have secured over £6,000 crucial funding from Morrisons, to help families with deaf children across the county.
The grant money will be used to give free sign language lessons to parents of deaf children and volunteers, alongside free lip-reading classes for elderly people who have lost their hearing.
Places will be offered immediately for lip reading classes and British Sign language courses will begin in the Autumn.
CDA have already supported a number of families and volunteers across the county with BSL classes, but crucial funding was running out.
Andrew Palmer is the chief executive of the Cambridgeshire Deaf Association.
He says this new grant will safeguard in the short term this important support that the charity delivers for families in Cambridgeshire:
‘Losing connections to the people we love, or not being able to develop connections with their own children, are two serious problems created by age-related hearing loss or deafness in children,” he said.
“This generous grant from Morrisons means that we’re able to support parents of deaf children learn sign language this year and means that we can offer people that have lost their hearing with age, a lifeline to be able to continue to communicate with their loved ones, friends, or even carers.
“Both sign language and lip reading are essential tools for communication for deaf people, and I’m really pleased that CDA are in the position to be able to support people, when they need it, with this grant from Morrisons. A big thank you to them.’
