A sign of hope

This is one of my favorite videos from last year. It shows a whole town in Turkey learning sign language so they can surprise Muharrem, their deaf neighbor. Seeing his face light up when he slowly realized that he was able to communicate with everyone that morning, makes me smile so much.

Though this video was created as part of a company’s promotion, it does not take away from the fact that the neighborhood took the time to participate and learn for this event. To me, this is also a sign of hope: Hope for raised awareness of the barriers many people have to overcome in order to live “normally.” Hope for more technology that can bring us closer as a human race. And finally, hope for people to realize the tremendous impact that a simple kind gesture can bring to a person’s life.