When a disaster happens, it can affect the whole community.
The Sendai Framework states that children have an important role in strengthening community resilience. The COPE disaster series has been created to teach children these skills, empowering them to be prepared and take action in an emergency situation. Encouraging awareness of vulnerable groups, the elderly, disabled, not forgetting pets and other animals, to ensure a safe, swift evacuation: Leaving No One Behind.
COPE features a contextually relevant approach for stakeholder groups to collaborate across cultures, disciplines, and sectors to promote the resilience of children in relation to disaster risks by including different vulnerable groups, such as the hearing impaired.
One of COPE’s characters, Eddy, is hearing impaired. Since Eddy is from Brazil, the COPE squad sometimes chat using the #Brazilian #Sign #Language (LSB). The COPE books have integrated (LSB) across the different narratives since 2018 via a collaboration with The Linguistics Department at the University of Brasília, who provide videos and check the accuracy of the signs. Time is taken to ensure the sign sends the correct message, paying attention to the context of the word and the facial expressions. The COPE illustrator Mariko Jesse follows careful instructions from the (LSB) team in Brazil and is always mindful to ensure the sign language is easy and clear to understand.
Sign language is spoken in almost every country. Furthermore, it can differ from one place to the next. As a result, there are between 138 and 300 different sign language varieties worldwide. Besides hand signs, sign language also involves facial and body expressions. The most widely used sign language is American Sign Language (ASL).
Can you spot these examples of the (LBS) Sign Language in one of our books?
Special thanks to Professor Francilene Machado, Professor Daniela Prometi, and Professor Messias Ramos Costa for their ongoing advice.
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