Personal change at Tampopo

The work of our volunteers often has a community-wide impact. However, some of the deepest changes happen on a personal level.

These personal accounts reveal the experiences of one of our ICS volunteers and a deaf team member of the Tampopo project – a Brazilian charity run by deaf people for deaf people.

In their own words: before our volunteers started work on
the project...

Our volunteer

"I have just arrived in-country. The organisation I am working with is run by deaf people for the deaf community.

I have a few concerns as to how I will be able to communicate with the staff at Tampopo and the deaf community who attend focus groups and L.G.B.T meetings. This is due to the fact that I am hearing, and I do not share the same language or culture them.

Another major concern I feel that may affect my work with Tampopo
is having no previous experience of working with a deaf group.
This makes me feel somewhat anxious, as I do not want to cause offence to my colleagues."

Tampopo project member
"I am a deaf, gay team member of the Tampopo project. Today we received 5 volunteers from the UK. As well as feeling apprehensive,
I also feel a bit sceptical. It is hard enough to communicate with Portuguese-speaking Brazilians who share my culture, let alone 5 foreigners who don’t speak a word of Portuguese or sign.

When I am at the hospital, doctors just speak at me even though they know I am deaf. I wonder if the volunteers' attitudes towards deaf people will be as ignorant. Have they even had contact with deaf people before? What inspired them to volunteer?

Despite the doubts, I am also excited about the prospect of meeting people from the UK and taking part in a cultural exchange. In the same way they probably have their preconceptions, I also have mine.
Do English people really drink a lot of tea..?

The difficulty for hearing people is that they rely so much on their voice and speech to project their personalities. I am curious to see how they tackle this hurdle. Only time will tell.

I would also like to see how I fare as a LIBRAS [Brazilian sign language] teacher, and how much English I can pick up."

In their own words: after 12 weeks working together on
the project...

Our volunteer
"Spending 2 and a half months at Tampopo has completely changed my attitudes towards communication. I now realise that my lack of Portuguese & LIBRAS was irrelevant, my perception of communication was all wrong and my understanding of the deaf community was poor.

My time at Tampopo has given me the confidence to communicate with members of the deaf community within the UK, even without knowing British Sign Language. I’ve learnt how communication failure can change someone’s life, and I’ve witnessed the difference a few simple gestures can make.

Dedicating a small amount of my time to Tampopo has made an immense impact on the way I think and feel, and more importantly, a huge impact on the way I wish to communicate now, and for the rest of my life."

Tampopo project member
"Working with the volunteers has been such a worthwhile experience. Having been exposed to so many hearing people trying to communicate and collaborate with me has thrown me into a positive outlook on working with hearing people.

My confidence in communicating with them has grown, which I feel will help me in speaking to anyone that doesn’t speak LIBRAS, be they hearing or deaf. My team have really put in the work, and the response from the volunteers has shown me how easy it can be to start communicating.

Something that was a real turn for me was when I felt like we were communicating our personalities and starting to understand who each person is at heart. I now encourage new or shy members of the group to get chatting with the volunteers and not be anxious because they are hearing. The kind of relationship we have made with the group is a start to bridging the gap between the hearing and the deaf that exists within society.

We’ve even created two short theatre pieces to illustrate the miscommunication barriers that we currently experience.
The fact that we were able to create this together has given the project an understanding that future collaboration with hearing people is easily possible."