Smile Day!

On Saturday 1st August 2009 team 94 did a Community Action Day (CAD) at Magwero School for the Deaf, about 30 mins away from Chipata town. We wanted to learn more about how children live with disabilities and give the pupils a fun day to remember.

We arrived at the school to a friendly welcome – all the kids were very excited to see us there and what we had to offer. We began the day by having a sign language lesson for an hour, learning some of the basics. This was really fun and helped us when communicating with the deaf children that afternoon.

During the day we did lots of different activities with the kids…Sports (football, baseball, volleyball, netball), jewelry making, making smiley face masks, dancing/drumming, group circle games, physical drama around the theme of climate change and making a ‘Smile Day’ banner.

The kids were in groups of 15 and rotated around each activity after 20 minutes so they had a chance to do each activity. The kids really enjoyed the day and learnt lots of new skills. Team 94 learnt a lot about how to work with deaf children as none of us had that experience before.

At the end of the day we took lots of photos, said our goodbyes and presented the school with some gifts. We gave them exercise books, pencils, pens, felt tips, chalk and paper. In schools in Zambia the facilities and equipment are very basic and minimal so it made a difference to the school to have these gifts. We also presented them with the ‘Smile day’ banner for them to put up in their school hall and remember us by. The banner said ‘GX Smile Day 2009’ and around it everyone had drawn round their hand and written a message or drawn a picture inside it.

Smile Day was a big success and all the pupils and team 94 had a good time. It was a life changing experience for some people who are now determined to learn sign language and it was the sort of experience we’ll never forget. The experience also taught the volunteers a lot about communicating with people with disabilities and learning difficulties. It has given us all more confidence to interact with a wider range of people from with diverse needs whilst developing knowledge and experience on how to run sessions and interact with youths. ‘Smile Day’ definitely lived up to its name!