Swansea Centre for Deaf People

For three generations, at least, my family has been associated with Swansea Centre For Deaf People. In the forties and fifties my grandmother and two of her sisters were on the ladies committee. In the early sixties she inducted my father onto the Board of Management as Hon. Solicitor, and years later in 1987, when he was coming up to retirement, he in turn brought me in to replace him as Hon. Solicitor.

Some years ago various committee members retired and I ended up as chairman of the charity (reg no. 221220). This is a very small autonomous charity which depends almost entirely upon legacies, fund raising and gifts.

My hobby is travel and researching the countries I have been to. I then deliver slide shows / PowerPoint presentations to retirement groups or people in retirement homes, whose travelling days are, by and large, behind them or economically beyond them.

Derryl Rees of Pentagon Design came up with the brilliant notion of putting a few of my presentations onto the internet. This gives potential travellers, or armchair travellers, an opportunity of getting an insight into various countries in 40 to 45 minutes from the comfort of their computer chair.

The talks are usually given to groups of retired people such as Rotary, WI, Church Halls etc. I do not charge as such, but if expenses are customarily given I will accept them and pledge that 100% of any funds raised will be applied to Swansea Centre For Deaf People. In this way I hope to be able to supplement our other sources of income. At least 330 people in the immediate area of Swansea are profoundly deaf and many thousands have hearing related impairment. We have a Deaf Centre and a campsite, both of which are costly to run, but which provide excellent facilities for the deaf community as well as their families and helpers.

So I hope you will become a regular armchair traveller with me.

Best Wishes & many thanks. I hope you enjoy the presentations and that they inspire you to travel, or that you find them helpful when you get there.

Tim Douglas-Jones