The 5th September marks the International Day of Charity, which was established with the objective of sensitising and mobilising people, NGOs, and stakeholders all around the world to help others through volunteer and philanthropic activities. The 5th of September was selected in order to commemorate the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity. Throughout her life, Mother Teresa devoted her life to caring for the sick and overcoming poverty.
As a Charity, Signature, are highlighting the International Day of Charity. Signature work to improve communication, by creating learning opportunities for every stage of life.
We have supported more than 600,000 people to learn British Sign Language. Alongside this, Signature are proud to have delivered the deaf awareness course to thousands of individuals.
As well as supporting over half a million people to learn BSL, Signature have also played a huge part in the campaign for the BSL GCSE, including the successful pilot scheme we ran back in 2015. Currently, just 35.1% of deaf children gained a grade 5 in English and Maths, compared to 55.8% of hearing children. By continually pushing ourselves a charitable organisation, we hope that when BSL is integrated into the classroom, it will result in a more inclusive environment for everyone.
We are also proud to have created the National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind People (NRCPD). The primary purpose is to protect d/Deaf* and deafblind people and maintain public confidence in language services across the UK.
We would like to say a huge thank you for all of those who have been involved with the Signature journey so far, from those who have enrolled in one of our courses, to our centres, teachers and assessors who continue to deliver the highest quality qualifications. We hope that the courses we provide will enable communication across the UK to be the best it can be.
