Ben Steiner Bursary Workshop
Last weekend was a very busy and a successful one for Zebra Access/ Deaffest! The Ben Steiner Bursary workshop which took place at Wolverhampton Science Park saw eight enthusiastic participants successfully accepted to enter the scheme.
Award-winning Director John Maidens led the workshop and did a fantastic job as always in educating the participants in the areas of script writing, production, marketing and pitching.
The Ben Steiner Bursary was first launched in 2009, set up in memory of Ben Steiner who died in 2000. The Bursary is a bi-annual event for talented emerging deaf and hard of hearing filmmakers over the age of 18.
While it was a weekend of learning the ropes, the two-day course was also an opportunity to meet new faces and form friendships. At the end of the workshop, the participants departed for home having learnt a thing or two (or rather, several!)
Armed with their new knowledge, the participating filmmakers will soon be pitching their film concept to a judge panel of high profile media experts.
All the best to them!
In his third week in sunny Sri Lanka, Alex is really settling in now!
“Monday saw the arrival of Rajitha and her husband, Chandranath – they are instructors of Buddhism. They are keen to teach deaf people around the world about pure Buddhism. Along with other deaf volunteers and an interpreter, we all had a big discussion about how this can be presented in various sign languages across the world for Rajitha’s website to be broadcasted online. In the evening, I visited the deaf family I stayed with last year, it was lovely to see them all again and had a huge catch up. The youngest one has shot up, started walking and already learnt simple Sri Lankan sign language.
On Wednesday, I signed the British Sign Language version of the pure Buddhism teachings for their website – another word for this is Nirvana Dhamma – http://www.nirvanadhamma.com/en.
On Friday morning, Kasun, other members of the deaf organisation and I visited a mainstream school in Weligama to discuss the donated hearing aids project. There is young deaf boy at the school who is in desperate need of one, we made plans to meet him next week and arrange a hearing aid to be fitted on him. I then visited Rohana Specialist School again to talk arrangements of my teaching after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and saw the kids off for their holidays.
At the weekend, I hit the waves and soaked up the rays at the beach resorts of Unawatuna and Mirissa. Saturday evening was a blast – there was a huge concert by the beach next to the bus stand in Matara town. The band on the stage were playing loud heavy metal music and shaking their hair everywhere – there was a thunderstorm at the same time so it was raining the whole time. It was hilarious dancing in the rain with Kasun and everyone (and an umbrella!).”
Alex is currently in his second week in Sri Lanka and has been updating us what he’s been up to!
“When a plan is made in Sri Lanka – it does not mean that it’s set in stone. Thus meaning I will not be teaching at the school until after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year (12 – 20 April), due to term exams taking place. This gave me time to focus on other projects this week:
It was Kasun’s birthday on Tuesday, so lots of bananas and sponge cake is eaten. We both headed to the nearby city of Galle to watch a sports day for disabled children from local schools. It was a great day seeing all the children and their parents having fun. Me and Kasun headed to the beach resort of Unawatuna in the evening, where I treated him to a huge English dinner – his birthday present!
On Thursday, we visited the hearing aid branch of Siemens in Matara city. A staff member checked the donated hearing aids I collected from my friends in England – out of 10, just 1 wasn’t working. We looked at the facilities and I learnt the following: In the past 2 years, they have sold approximately 50 hearing aids at the Matara office; the hearing aids are manufactured in Germany. They have approximately 10 hearing aids in stock. 1 new analogue hearing aid costs approximately £60 and 1 new digital hearing aid costs approximately £230. A pack of 6 batteries costs £2. After a quick discussion, the company is happy to accept donated hearing aids and give them to deaf people for free.
Friday evening, we visited Kasun’s friend, an audiologist, at her home. She will be helping us on this hearing aid project. We discussed who exactly should have the first of the donated hearing aids – those who are in great need of them. We agreed that the deaf students who are in local mainstreams schools should. We are now making plans to visit these schools, where we give them a hearing test, followed by fitting hearing aids on them for the first time.
Popped over to Dikwella again on Saturday to see my mate Nsusanha and hit some waves. His birthday is in May and has asked me to go to his “massive beach party”. Invitation accepted!”
Deaffest 