post 305: tuesday morning british news & coffee

Some news: the National Lottery has created a fund for interpreters for Deaf Gay men:

“Deaf gay men are a sizeable and valuable part of our community,” said GMFA spokesman Matthew Hodson.

“But research indicates that they often have difficulty in accessing gay specific health information, including the services that groups such as GMFA provide. This award now means that deaf gay men can come on any of our courses and pick up the kind of skills for gay life that none of us are taught at school.”

Also from the UK: I reported back in February about a production of Grease by Deaf people to raise money for education of Deaf people in Gambia, Africa. An update, from my friend Tyron in Britain:

We are very pleased to announce that £3000 was raised from the Deaf Grease event held on May 20th in London. About 50 deaf children attended event 1 in the afternoon and 250 people came in the evening.

The event was organised by a committee of 16 volunteers: Abdi Gas; Andrew Revell; Angela Spielsinger; Antony Rabin; Colette Hogan; Dani Sive; Derek Rodger; Fifi Garfield; Hux Omar; Jodee Mundy; Jordan Fenlon; Melissa Scacco; Rebecca Tadman; Robert Adam; Rob Skinner; Roger Hewitt; Tanya Denmark and Tyron Woolfe.

This was the third event of Deaf musicals that seem to be drawing a massive audience within the sign language community. The event uses famous musical films to get people from the audience to compete in sketches, signed songs and dances. Deaf Chicago was held in 2004, Deaf Sound of Music in 2005.

The audience voted this year for next year's event - Deaf Annie! Watch this space!!

All monies from these events have gone to Deaf children in the Gambia, Africa. We have bought school material, petrol and other educational costs to date. The money raised from Deaf Grease will be used for Deaf children living in the rural areas of the Gambia, c/o Deaf Link Gambia the charity.

Thanks are given to BDA for use of advert in Sign Matters, DCAL for use of room for meetings, Sign for use of rehearsal space, Mary Ward House for venue reduced costs, Nick Beese for design of poster and Oliver Westbury for advert in Deafok.com and finally to all those who came along to this enjoyable event!

All enquiries to Tyron Woolfe, wtyron@hotmail.com

I always admire the abilities of this group of people to pull off successful fundraisers one after the other.

ALSO: Adam Stone reports: Is VRS in danger? More on VRS later today from DITC.