Take a look at this pictures. People who dropped by our Mission booth at PWTC, had a chance to walk away learning how to sign a few alphabets. These pictures show the impact some of our Deaf helpers made on the public.
      
Left : Carol Lau (pink jacket) showing visitors how to sign “R”. Right : Stephen Mill (striped shirt) showing visitors how to sign “U”. Below : Jeffrey Gilbert (red shirt) demonstrating how to sign “G”. Esther (in spectacles) showing how to sign “X”.

     

At the Deaf Art promotion at the Youth 08 event at the PWTC (Putra World Trade Centre) last weekend, an estimated 140 members of the public filled out an expression of interest form to learn sign language. We found this extremely encouraging to be able to reach the “man on the street” so to speak.

Stay tuned folks as we launched Sign Language classes in May, with certified Deaf Sign Language Instructors to conduct them. The classes will bring to life the language and culture of the Deaf community. There will be lots of exposure and fun exercises. BIM (Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia) - translated in English means Malaysian Sign Language - will be taught to encourage public to learn this language.

                

We had a wonderful ending to this Project, with a successful sale of the balance of ALL of our Deaf Art Calendars at Eden Cafe @ AMCORP (Jan 12/13), and last weekend at PWTC (Jan 18-20) - Putra World Trade Centre in conjunction with the Youth 08 event (organised by YouthMalaysia.com). There’s not even a single copy left over. 2 photos from the Jan 12/13 sale.

   
Left : Jeffrey Gilbert (Deaf helper) and Rachel (Deaf Artist and helper) just made a sale to members of the public.  Right : Dato’ Jalaludin Hassan, renowned Malaysian TV personality, who came by our booth and got himself a Deaf Art calendar. Here he is very happily posing with us for the camera.

Coming soon, photos from the Deaf Art Promotion at PWTC where we had the special honour of the visit of 2 VIPs, YB Datuk Ong Tee Kiat, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and YB Dato’ Liow Tiong Lai, Deputy Minister of Youth & Sports.

RC Deaf Missions Malaysian, in collaboration with Eden Inc, AMCORP Tower, will be holding our final round of sales of the Deaf Art Calendar 2008 this weekend. The coming weekend will mark the final stage of the project where we intend to clear off the balance of some 200 calendars of the 2000 calendars we initially printed.

Date :    Sat Jan 12 and Sun Jan 13
Time :    10.00am - 9.00pm (both dates)
Venue :    Eden Cafe, Ground Floor, AMCORP Mall PJ 

                                       

These signature calendars are now going at a clearance of RM20.00 per copy and RM30.00 for two copies. EDEN Management has played a wonderful collaborator role. EDEN, who has played a wonderful collaboator role, has given their support to the Mission by providing us a place to sell, and offering their customers the ‘free beverage with purchase of any main meal’ promotion for those who purchase the calendar. 500 calendars were sold in a two weekends (Dec 15/16 and Dec 29).

This has been a terrific journey for the Mission. As a result of this project which we kicked off in September 2007, the Deaf Artists have been receiving loads of recognition. We want to make a difference in how members of society view Deaf people.  The Deaf Art Calendar project will take its bow out soon with the conclusion of the sale.

We thank the Star, Sin Chew Daily, Harian Metro, Malay Mail, and Malaysiakini for publishing the story about the project, and about the Mission.

The sale proceeds are being channelled to the Mission and are being apportioned to pay allowances to Deaf persons, and towards their development programmes.

At the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Puchong. The parish priest Fr Leonard and his parishioners welcomed us with tremendous support.

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Below : Jeffrey and Carol, the 2 Deaf helpers with us in Puchong.

                                      

The 1-day promotion at Eden Cafe, AMCORP and calendar sale went very well.  Here are some pictures of the day:

      
Left : Scores of people flocking to buy the calendar.
Right : Deaf Artists Peter and Rachel busy autographing the calendars. �  
Deaf helpers for the Mission that day (Jeffrey and Stephen, and Joan in the background) and on right (Esther and Carol)
                          
Here we are with Mr Dhillon, Manager, Eden Cafe, AMCORP Tower (Peter, Agnes, Dhillon, Harry, Mario, Jeffrey)

Here’s a picture of Alex Ooi, the owner of Readers’ Corner, and his staff delightfully showing their support of the Deaf Art Calendar and the advertisement they carried in their bookstore about the calendar. And next to this photo, is a snap shot of front view of Readers’ Corner at Subang Parade (Lower Ground  LG02). It’s really a lovely place to park yourself if you love reading.

       

Hurry and get your copy of the calendar. The calendar will be available at the store for another week. Call Readers’ Corner at +603 5633 1121 (they are closed on Mondays).