Ephpheta: March 1981 (Vol. 4, No. 1)

Some of the items featured in ‘Ephpheta: March 1981 (Vol. 4, No. 1)’:

• South Pacific Television (TV2) started captioning the six o’clock news on Saturday, to the delight and relief of so many of us who can now really watch the news for the first time. 
• Daniel Beech and Bruce McHattie (President of the NZ Association of the Deaf) last month attended a congress on the Deaf in Rome, and were privileged to have a private audience with Pope John Paul. The issue contains an update on Daniel’s journey ‘around the world in eighteen days’. 
• During the December gathering of the Auckland Deaf Catholic Deaf, Christmas Carols were “sung” by the Deaf “Sign Singers”. The idea of “Sign Singing” is to try to show the hearing that there is beauty in sign language and that they shouldn’t feel shy of trying to talk with the Deaf.
• Some young deaf people have been working very hard to raise money at flea-markets to contribute to the Scholarship Fund which helped send Stephen Leach to Gallaudet College. The issue also contains an update from Stephen Leach who recently had the pleasure of welcoming Bruce McHattie and Daniel Beech to Washington D.C.