My name is Zalira Silveira and I am a Portuguese translator volunteer to this magazine. I'm 48 years old and have 4 kids. Patricia, 27 years old, Rachel 24 years old, Raphael 21 years old and Daniel just 17 years old. My husband's name is Ari and he's 51 years old.

I am a Social Worker and always loved to work with the most special people to my heart : people with disabilities. As a teenager, at the age of fourteen I was already a volunteer at a Handicapped Children's Hospital in Brazil. I worked many years as a Case Social Worker at a Rehabilitation Center,dealing with kids with cerebral palsy and elderly people.

But I always wanted to learn the Sign Language. I wanted to talk to the deaf people and to record book tapes to the blind ones.

I feel so happy when I can help! And every time I receive a story from the Deaf Friends Magazine to translate I start imagining your exciting happy faces and bright smiles reading the other people life' stories that each of us, volunteer translators make to this magazine.