Withiel WI

It was good to all meet up again after the Christmas break and we started our year with a most interesting meeting. Our speaker was Sonia Shipman who gave a talk about sign language. Sonia started with a look back and said that, until relevantly recently, deaf people were overlooked and not considered worthy of educating, with any kind of sign language banned in schools. In 1880 it became law that any teacher found to be using any signing to communicate with deaf children would be sacked. Deaf women giving birth were virtually abandoned as nurses wore face masks and there would be nobody to sign offering comfort or encouragement.

Sonia then went on to demonstrate the most used signs such as Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, and told us not to look down but look straight at people when speaking and most importantly not to raise our voices. She demonstrated a few sentences and told a short story about getting dressed to go out for a walk and what she saw, birds and a cow, and so it went on. Everyone got the gist, proving that it is not too difficult to be understood. After a questions and answers session, Sonia handed round sheets with the most commonly used words and phrases and the most relevant signs for communicating with deaf people. It was a great evening and a good start to our programme for the coming year.

Erica

The competitions were judged and the winners were:

A favourite pair of gloves: 1st Judy Lobb 2nd Angie Richardson 3rd Kay Leaney

Flower of the Month: 1st Margaret Fryett 2nd Liz Capp 3rd Angie Richardson

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We are opening the following meetings to anyone who may be interested, men and women will be made welcome.

FRIDAY 7th March, Norman Trebilcock Lanjeth Water Gardens

FRIDAY 4th April, Ben Jobes Police Dog Handler

The meetings will be at 7.15pm and there will be WI refreshments available afterwards

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