Video: Hengevelde residents learn sign language to include 4-year-old boy in community
Residents of Hengevelde have learned sign language to help four-year-old Gijs Bloemen, who has a hearing impairment, communicate in daily life. The initiative began after Gijs’s mother, Anouk Doeschot, hung a wish on the village’s wishing tree last year for her son to feel fully included in the community, Hart van Nederland reported.
“We want Gijs to feel at home here,” Doeschot told the news outlet. “He goes to school here, plays with friends, shops in the supermarket, and visits the football field. It’s important that people understand him.”
The village’s wishing tree committee organized the effort, contacting Gijs’s sign language teacher to provide instruction. At his school, teachers learned basic signs, and classmates practiced with him.
Parents were also involved, and two community information sessions were held for friends, neighbors, local business owners, and others who interact with Gijs. About 80 people attended, including his football coaches and taxi driver.
Jacqueline Everink, who works at the local oliebollen stand, said she immediately connected to the project. “My daughter is also hard of hearing, so I felt an instant connection,” she told Hart van Nederland. “Gijs simply can’t communicate if you don’t know sign language. That would exclude him without anyone intending it.”
Doeschot said the initiative has had a visible effect on Gijs’s development. “He feels heard and seen. Exactly what we hoped for.” In Hengevelde, sign language is now widely used. Children greet Gijs with signs on the school playground, and local shopkeepers respond to hand gestures, including ordering his favorite snacks.
