THE story may have taken place thousands of kilometres away, but its message resonated with Prestondale resident, Shelley Ferreira. The video shows an entire town banding together to learn sign language to give one deaf man the best day of his life. It has been viewed more than nine million times through YouTube.
The theme of the video is a world without barriers. The video focuses on a young Turkish man with a hearing impairment, named Muharrem.
As he goes about his day, strangers suddenly begin to approach and communicate with him using sign language, including passers-by on the street, a cashier at a local bakery and even the taxi driver who chauffeurs him into town, where friends and family have gathered for the big reveal.
The former Miss Deaf SA and Miss Ballito said she was brought to tears by the emotional video.
“If there were more people like this, the world would be a better place. I was really touched by the video, and although it was an advert for Samsung, I felt the message about breaking barriers was important,” she said.
Shelley was born deaf and communicates through lip-reading and sign language. Her parents discovered that she was deaf at the age of two, and though she was fitted with a hearing aid she had to see a speech therapist.
The former Our Lady of Fatima pupil said deaf people struggle on a daily basis to communicate with hearing people about normal things such as shopping, opening a new cellphone contract, etc.
She has also advocated introducing sign language as the 12th official language of South Africa.
“If only there were more people proficient in sign language, it would really make it easier for communication and bring the deaf and hearing together as one. I learnt the language by using a sign alphabet, card and since then I’ve hosted free sign language lessons for hearing people to learn. I feel this is the way to close the gap between the deaf and the hearing.
“It truly is a beautiful and interesting language to learn, and my hope is for more people to learn it,” she said.
