Boy gets his kicks thanks to club’s donation

Rotary funds help deaf children

A DONATION from the Rotary Club of Royston has allowed a deaf boy to get his football fix.

The 16-year old from Royston, who uses sign language as his primary mode of communication, was able to attend a Football Festival run in Stevenage supported by a sign language interpreter funded by Rotary and arranged by local charity the Phoenix Group for Deaf Children.

Rotary club donations to the Phoenix group in the last year now total �4,500, and this week David Izod, rotary president, handed Jane Shann, Director of the Phoenix Group, a cheque of �1,500.

David said: “One of the biggest difficulties for hearing impaired and deaf people is that they lose contact with other people and feel very isolated, uncared for and sometimes regarded as having mental difficulties. Rotary is proud that it has helped in a small way to improve this situation.”

Club money has also provided telephone training for parents and deaf children to enable them to purchase adapted telephones and use them to speak to relatives.

“One mother reports that her son feels less isolated as he is now able to contact and chat to his friends,” added David.

Phoenix has also been able to provide a sign language workshop for eight volunteers, five parents, and eight hearing impaired children so children that use sign language could have a wider circle of people to talk to.

For more information on the charity’s work, visit www.phoenixgroup.org.uk.