Rotary Club of Shrewsbury GUEST SPEAKER – Susan Barlow
President Pat McLaughlin with Susan Barlow At the Rotary Club of Shrewsbury luncheon on 3 August 2016, Susan Barlow spoke about the charity Signal which is a combination of the Woodford Foundation and Shropshire Deafness Association. They are a Shropshire based charity with offices in College Hill. Signal stands for Sensory Impairment Global National and Local. The Charity concentrates on two main areas dealing with people in Shropshire with hearing impairments and also working with children in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The main problem for these children is that they are shunned by their families and do not regularly attend school, even in one case a child not being allowed by his father to eat at the table with the rest of the family. The impairment is considered to be the action of witchcraft and leaves these children with a stigma, disability and isolation. Work of the Charity centres on helping the children their families and their teachers to enable the children to receive an education. 20% of the County’s population suffer from some form of hearing impediment. The Charity has also set up a drop in centre in the Riverside Shopping Mall to help Shropshire people with hearing problems and it has developed a Buddy service to provide emotional support for people with hearing impairment.
Summary report by Rtn Keith Fearnside
signal.org.uk