In this issue

• Welcome to our new board member
• 2010 Science Challenge
• 2010 Hear For You Program
• What does Deafness Forum do?
• Deafness Forum 2010 Educational Scholarship
• What's on in December?
• Improve captioning levels for your children...
• GPOD survey available in Chinese
• MAA's Accessible Entertainment Christmas competition
• Join our online parent forums
• Make a donation

Our new website recently celebrated its first birthday. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible, particularly our grantmakers, donors, content partners, volunteers and board members.

Our birthday coincided with our web developers winning a Queensland Multimedia Award for our website. Congratulations to Damian Codotto and Troy Noble from Mindwire. And thanks to Damian for the hours of support he has provided over the year.

Thank you also to the North Shore Deaf Children's Association who have provided us with a donation towards the costs of this monthly newsletter. Their assistance is much appreciated.

I am taking a break in January. I hope you all have a wonderful Xmas holiday with family and friends and I look forward to being in touch in the New Year.

info@aussiedeafkids.org.au

Aussie Deaf Kids held its second Annual General Meeting on 24th November. We were sad to say farewell to Talal Yassine who was instrumental in helping us establish Aussie Deaf Kids as a charity in 2007. Unfortunately, his work commitments have made it too difficult for him to continue on the board. Thank you Talal for all your support and wisdom.

We welcome our new director, Margaret Prior, and look forward to working with her in the year ahead.

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The Veronica James Science Challenge for Hearing Impaired Children is an annual event which aims to teach children with hearing impairments about science - especially interesting and useful science.

The 2010 Challenge will be held on the 17th and 18th April 2010. The booking form is now available.

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During Terms 1 and 2, 2010, Hear For You will be hosting three group workshops for young people with cochlear implants / hearing aids at Wesley College, University of Sydney. It will be a fantastic opportunity for the teenagers to experience the university atmosphere as they prepare themselves for life after school.

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We have permission to reprint an article by the CEO of Deafness Forum, Nicole Lawder, about the role of Deafness Forum. We think it was important for families to know about Deafness Forum and urge parents to join the organisation that lobbies government on behalf of our children and all people in Australia with a hearing loss.
There are two parents of deaf children on the board of Deafness Forum - Roz Keenan is currently a Parent Service Coordinator at Deaf Children Australia and Naomi Higgs who is the president of PHISA.

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Deafness Forum provides educational scholarships to facilitate the participation of people who are Deaf or people who have a hearing impairment in post secondary education.

In 2010 a scholarship will be available for support such as tuition, text materials or any other support considered necessary and approved by the Selection Panel for the Scholar(s) to successfully undertake an educational program.

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Deaf Ability Day - 5 December
Twilight Saga: New Moon screenings - 17-23 December

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There is an opportunity for parents to improve captioning levels for their children on free-to-air and subscription television, DVDs, films in cinemas and audio-visual content on the Internet. Have your say and make a difference.

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The Global Coalition of Parents of Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (GPOD) survey is now available in Chinese as well as Arabic. To complete the survey and find out more about GPOD, visit their website

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Christmas is just around the corner and to celebrate Media Access Australia is giving away three fabulous prize packs.

Each pack includes five captioned and audio described DVDs and two tickets to an accessible cinema with captioned and audio described films near you.

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You can help Aussie Deaf Kids by donating online. We use the Our Community secure online donations facility. Your donation will go directly into the research and development of content for the website which will assist parents to make informed choices about raising their deaf child.

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