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DILI, Timor Leste : Developing a sign language for the deaf in Dili - that is what a Singaporean volunteer hopes to achieve through a Singapore In-field Volunteer project in Dili, Timor Leste.
Alvan Yap has been teaching for seven months in Agape School for the Deaf.
Currently, there isn't a standard sign language in Dili, so most of his hearing-impaired students communicate using an improvised version.
Yap, who is hearing impaired as well, has started using his own version which is a combination of the international sign language and the sign language used by his Dili students.
As part of the curriculum, 33-year-old Yap is training 10 students to be teachers at Agape so as to ensure continuity after his project ends next year.
The project will benefit the current 23 hearing-impaired students and it hopes to reach out to about 100 other hearing-impaired persons in Dili.
The project started in January 2010 and is expected to end in January next year.
Alvan Yap, a volunteer at the Singapore In-field Volunteer Project in Dili, said: "Once you use the sign, everyone knows what it means - (it's a) short cut to communications. It's all about personal satisfaction from doing something meaningful for my time."
- CNA/al
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