20 deafblind persons joined an exchange tour at Macau

Prepared for more than half year with positive response

The Resource Centre for the Deafblind organized an exchange tour to Macau on 10 – 11 January 2018, it was the first outbound exchange tour since its establishment 12 years ago. Prepared for more than half year, apart from liaising with suitable organizations for exchange, it was difficult for us to match communicators with the deafblind participants. Luckily, 42 persons included 20 deafblind persons visited Macau Deaf Association, service for the hearing impaired and Macau Holy House of Mercy, service for the visually impaired.

Four of the deafblind, Lisha, Shing, Rholland and Ho have travel experiences, but all of them learned a lot from the tour. Lisha joined the tour with her mother, both were touched by the strong team spirit; Shing was led by a communicator Gary that strongly agreed the tour would not be success without the help of communicator, he also feel blessed because there is communicator service provided in Hong Kong (Macau has no service for the deafblind); Ho joined many different activities organized by the Centre, but she knew more about other deafblind members during the two-day trip, the friendship is strengthened as well. It was a very special tour to Rholland even he has participated many marathon competitions around the world, he wished to join again and hope to have more interaction with the deafblind in Macau. 

Travel is a difficult task to the deafblind, we are grateful to have many supports from different parties to make the tour success, we also thank to the deafblind participants to their support and trust to our Centre. We will continue to organize other outbound tours, to let the deafblind to widen their horizon.

The role of a communicator

Communicator provide one to one daily support services to a deafblind, such as purchase daily necessities, participate in social activities, visit doctors and etc. to help them to integrate into the society. The service was launched in 2013, there are 32 qualified communicator trained by the Centre.  

Lisha and her communicator Faith shared an unforgettable experience, some years ago when Lisha received an medical surgery in hospital, Faith accompanied Lisha in the ward to translate what the health care professionals said, when Lisha was sent to the surgery room, she was so scared and Faith accompanied her until the surgery finished.

Group photo

Exchange time

Participants enjoyed delicious Portuguese Cuisine

 Sightseeing time

During the exchange tour, communicator (right) interpreted the content for the deafblind (left) by Tactile Sign Language

Gary (right), the communicator of Shing (left) interpreted the environment during sightseeing at Macau.