Travelling Makes A Better Life

Thi_smiletourvn

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To whom it may concern:

I am a professional tour guide and tour operator in Vietnam. I have been guiding thousands of speaking people from many countries through years. I find those travellers very advantaged people who can travel round the world and enjoy many nice things. As a guide, I also find myself lucky to get paid to travel, make friends with many people and also enjoy many nice things with my travellers.

How about the deaf and HOH people? I believe they also wish to travel as far and long as those advantaged people. Money and time can be some of their main obstacles. Finding a destination tour operator who can make their trips safe and enjoyable is the next big obstacle after the above ones have been solved. However, there are more and more tour operators who are offering warm-hearted care and concern to those disadvantaged people. Smile Tours Service in Vietnam is one of those tour operators.

At the moment, we are working on a project to organize tours for deaf and HOH travellers in Vietnam. We are training a group of young Vietnamese deaf and HOH people to be tour guides. Some of them are working and some are studying at a professional teachers training course for deaf people. Besides, those deaf learners and some professional speaking guides are learning some sorts of popular signed language/gestured languages to be able to communicate with deaf and HOH travellers and their families from all over the world. Every tour will be handled by 2 guides: 1 speaking and 1 deaf. We will make good programs focusing on high security, beautiful sites, delicious food, beach hang-out, shopping, visits to schools and workshops for the disable, etc. Please have a look at our website for more information SMILE TOURS, TRAVEL VIETNAM, VIETNAM HOTELS, VIETNAM VISA, CUSTOMIZED TOURS CAMBODIA, LAOS

We strongly believe that traveling can make a better world and traveling for the deaf and HOH people can enhance their living standards very much in many ways. For example, deaf travelers can enjoy safe guided tours, seeing beautiful sites, eating delicious food; deaf tour operators and guides can make a better living; and they both have chance to exchange their different cultures, life styles, and sign languages together, which can make their humble silent worlds more open and interesting. Unlike people on wheel chairs, deaf people can travel more easily in Vietnam in terms of infrastructure. Vietnam is truly an ideal destination for deaf travelers as it offers good security, beautiful sceneries, delicious food, interesting daily life, friendly and helpful people.

The more I communicate with these deaf learners, the more I admire their strong wills for life. But I also feel sorry and upset about their disadvantages. The deaf learners have different situations of how they have become deaf. Some have got it from birth. Some of them have suffered it due to lack of medical knowledge and care from their own families when they got fevers at a very young age. Some have even got it from stress and depression from work and life. Some of them can gain their hearing ability back if they can afford for some hearing–aid devices, or some ear operations. But unfortunately, they can not afford that now. It's really sad to hear their stories. At the moment, they are working hard for at least 8 hours a day and 6 days a week or more to earn about 40 to 100 USD per month without any extra subsidization as cleaners, tailors, painters, handicraft makers, waiters, etc. This income covers their daily expenses, rent, food, special occasions such as celebrations, eating out with friends, and even some support their families. They join some clubs or groups with other deaf fellows to show their existence in this life. Happily, some are in love and some will get married, even with foreign deaf people. They care for each other and communicate well by sending cell phone messages, using web cam chats online or emails, and meeting together. Their world of silence is a really interesting one to be explored. They all love travelling and being guides. They all want to enhance their simple lives.

If you are interested in this project, please contact us at Thi_travel@yahoo.com for any feedback, suggestions, ideas, opinions, encouragements, and experiences. We would highly appreciate any help in any way: introducing our tours for deaf travellers to anybody or groups who are interested in travelling to Vietnam; volunteering to teach us international sign languages; sponsoring those poor deaf people for hearing devices or curing their hearing ability, or financing the training course which is given for free by Smile Tours Service but we still need financial help for training tours and more training courses in other areas.

I really hope that you will find this message and our project understandable and meaningful.

Cheers,

Ms. Hoang Thi Minh Thi
 
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