Cayo Deaf Institute Sweeps Finger Spelling Bee

Disability awareness week is being celebrated under the theme ‘Transformation Towards a Sustainable and Resilient Society for All’. As a part of the activities, the annual Finger Bee was held today in Belize City. Nine deaf students from Orange Walk, Corozal, Cayo and Belize Districts competed in junior and senior categories. After several rounds of the finger spelling competition among the five junior and four senior participants, the Cayo Deaf Institute swept the competition. We stopped in at the competition and spoke with Special Education Officer Juanita Cadle about the event:

Juanita Cadle

Juanita Cadle, Special Education Officer, NaRCIE

“This activity actually shows that our children with disabilities are just as able as any other student, jus that they do things in a different way. This Finger Spelling Bee is like the regular Spelling Bee that is held by the Ministry of Education, just that in this case the words are spelled using their hands, their fingers and that is the way the words are spelled. They look forward to this event because this is something that is held annually and it is a national competition, so even past students who are deaf come. If you see, in the audience there are students who are past winners and competitors and they look forward to these events because we don’t have much but we are trying as much as possible to advocate and promote these activities so that the community becomes more aware and sensitized about the potential and the ability of these persons with disabilities, in this case, today, we are focusing on the deaf.”