Havana Province, Cuba. - The music was heard in the stage and those that have no voice began to sing with their hands. It is the children´s choir of signs of the “Orlando Nodarse” Special School, from Bauta. These children, with severe hearing impairment and unable to talk, found the means be heard. 
 
The miracle happened thanks to the perseverance and love of young, art instructor Rafael Milian and the support of specialized professors. The children have an urgent message that goes beyond the barriers of their handicap. Their hands rise in a clamor for world peace, protection of nature, family harmony, solidarity and courtesy.  
 
We find this choir of deaf-mute children chimerical. Professor Nancy Dominguez, specialist in pronunciation, unravels the possibilities of this world of silence to us. She says: “These children with hearing impairment feel the music through vibrations. When we raise the music louder, they count the beats with their feet and thus can follow the rhythm. Their language of signs trains them in pantomime and they are very mimic. Since the choir partly sings and partly makes signs, they perform very well because that is their world, the world of signs.”   
 
The choir of signs is not an eventual artistic show. It is a deliberate project to strengthen the mind and transform the character. Manuel Martinez, psycho-pedagogue, lists the benefits: “The psychic processes are affected by hearing constraints. With these artistic manifestations, children develop memory, attention, motivation and creative thinking. Of course, all this facilitates their learning immensely. Self-esteem is a fundamental element for them. When they realize that they can perform with artistic quality and that the public and their family appreciate them, they feel further motivated to try harder. They overcome their limitations and the differences weigh less in their lives.”   
 
Maria Emilia Perez says: “Sublime deeds shape and beautify their authors. The parents admire a new picture in the lives of their little ones” and she adds: “I feel very excited when I see them acting in the choir. It´s a dream that he can achieve such coordination with his partners and that perfect performance. I am so glad to see him doing new things. In his daily life he is also making progress; he writes sentences; he learns Mathematics. Being so young, he can already buy things. He knows how much money he has to pay and what should be returned to him. All that thanks to the school. Yanet Gonzalez says: “My boy was very aggressive due to his hearing constraints and being unable to speak made him desperate.  We learned how to communicate, because I also took classes to learn the language of signs. Today he is more calmed and learns easily.  I realized that he is very intelligent. He is very happy and so am I.”   
 
The presentation of the choir ended, but a spectator kept clapping his hands after the applauses were over. He is a deaf-mute father and tears run down his face. His name is Yoel Suarez. His son Jesus is one of the little artists. Caridad Casanova, who was the father's teacher and today instructs the son, translates the signs. “He says that his heart is swelling with pride. He knows by his own experience what being unable to hear and to speak is like. But his boy is happy because he has the chance to do what he likes. He is a very active and dynamic boy. Although it sounds incredible, he likes parties, he likes to dance and he has accomplished his dreams here in the school.”  
   
The “Orlando Nodarse” Special School of Bauta guarantees care to all the children with special educational needs of Havana Province western municipalities. The 19 members of the children´s choir of signs are boarding students. They receive special teaching and therapy in the center and participate in diverse artistic and sports projects, free of charge whatsoever.

In the acoustic classrooms, a song of hope breaks the silence.

Translated by: Pedro A. Fanego

( 03.12.2009 10:13 AM )