The TA in Cuba is holding a workshop on sign language for the pastoral inclusion of people with hearing disabilities, in memory of the canonisation of Pedro Poveda and the Centenary Year.
This is the first sign language workshop to be held in the diocese of Holguín, where the Teresian Association is present. The aim of the workshop is to facilitate the inclusion of people with hearing disabilities in pastoral and social life. The workshop began on the 21st anniversary of the canonisation of Pedro Poveda which took place on 4 May 2003, and this is the centenary of the pontifical approval of the Association which he initiated.
The workshop consists of several training blocks. It started with people coming from various parishes in the city and from civil society, most of them coming from the world of special education and medicine, more specifically paediatrics. The teacher who leads the workshop has been working in the special education sector for more than 20 years and has a degree in defectology.
Welcome everyone
The classes will take place over a period of several weeks. The workshop participants have chosen Saturdays for a session of four hours. In the first block, they learned about the basic elements of communication without going into the technical vocabulary of any of the professions.
“This first meeting was an encouraging experience to help deaf people who come to our communities and do not find a welcome or space,” said Dayana, one of the participants.
Several catechists present at the meeting asked for future workshops focused on Christian initiation to enable people with disabilities to receive the sacraments.
The course is supported by members of the Association in Eastern Andalusia and by Caritas in Holguín.
TA Holguin.
TA Translation Team.
Published in News