BRITIAN
The British Deaf Association and Cardiff City Council has established a new youth club for young Deaf people. Many young Deaf people have lost contact with others because they have been mainstreamed in hearing schools and attend mainstream youth clubs as well. They also do not have much opportunity to meet Deaf adults. The new youth club will help modify that and the Deaf youth workers will run the club by themselves in order to meet with the young people and share experiences, learn about Deaf culture, and their own Deaf identity. (britishdeafassociation.org.uk)

BOTSWANA
Three first deaf students will join the Form Three education system. The students, two boys and a girl are from the Dithejwane Community Junior Secondary School. They will be entering the Maun Senior Secondary School. Special education teachers will be sent to the school to help meet the deaf students’ needs. (deaftoday.com)

NEW ZEALAND
Guy Benfield, Deaf since birth, was beaten up not once but twice in one night outside his home in Rotorua. The beatings occurred on Valentine’s Day. Benfield has gone through a lot in the last year including a car accident which caused him head injuries, being hit in the head by a digger at work. Not only that, Benfield and his wife were victims of 5 burglaries in the last few months. As a result of the 2 beatings, Benfield has had his jaw wired together with 18 screws and is eating through a straw. The police are still looking for the men who caused the assaults. (stuff.co.nz)

SOUTH AFRICA
Manito Tshabalala-Msimang, the Health Minister of Johannesburg has signed up for a course in sign language because she is planning to develop an educational video for deaf children. She also said that society tended to classify a deaf person only according to a medical understanding of deafness. She felt that Deaf people have their own culture and they need a better way of understanding the “human rights and gender issues, relationships, hygiene, mental health, sexual and child abuse, sexuality, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/Aids. Tshabalala-Msimang thinks that the video will help add to the decline of HIV infected individuals over the next few years. (deaftoday.com)

USA
Celebrated deaf actress Terrylene will provide performances of her autobiography one-woman play, In the Now. The shows are scheduled to be shown in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The fund proceedings will go to the domestic violence program at the Communications Service for the Deaf (CSD). The shows will enable the audience to watch a story signed in American Sign Language to explain Terrylene’s experience as she grew up from cautious girl into a complete woman. The show consists of storytelling, ASL poetry, and with voice translation. (deaftoday.com)