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Charity for deaf trains interpreters to help in Malawi - Herald Scotland | News | Health
In Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, the deaf community are a forgotten section of society.
But a project run by charity Deaf Action has been working to give deaf people access to the same education and training as their hearing peers.
Volunteers from Scotland have been working in Africa for the past two years to help train, assess and register sign language interpreter trainers in Malawi and Swaziland.
Begun in 2008, the two-year pilot aimed to educate 15 trainers to allow deaf people the chance to contribute to civil society developments in those countries, while giving deaf Scots the chance to become involved in international development.
Volunteer Tessa Padden-Duncan, 53, alongside Bryan Marshall of Deaf Action, has spent two years introducing a group of 12 students to Sign Language Linguistics and training them to teach Malawi Sign Language as a second language to hearing people in Malawi.
She had to learn Malawi sign language to do so. Despite the differences between Malawi Sign Language (MSL) and British Sign Language (BSL), Tessa said her experience of learning different sign languages – her mother language was Irish Sign Language with BSL second – has helped her pick up phrases.
In Malawi there are an estimated 200,000 deaf people but 98% are illiterate while only 2% have jobs and only 3% of deaf children are in deaf schools.
Begun in 2008, the project worked with Malawi National Association of the Deaf (MANAD). Deaf Action aimed to teach MSL, rather than using oral education or versions of BSL or American Sign Language.
Ms Padden-Duncan and her colleagues worked in the town of Limbe in the Montford teacher training college.
A BSL teacher for more than 20 years as well as a BSL television presenter for Channel 4 and the BBC, Ms Padden-Duncan is now a teaching fellow at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh helping to develop an undergraduate degree in BSL/English interpreting. She said: “I’m pleased to say the students have taught me quite a bit of Malawi Sign Language. I have picked it up quite quickly, helped by the fact that I already know a number of other sign languages.”
She still has the occasional lost-in-translation moment, however, with learners putting her right on occasion. “After a teaching demonstration to some hearing learners from Malawi they gave me feedback.
“The way I had welcomed them was not culturally appropriate for deaf people in Malawi. And when I said ‘thank you’, I gave the BSL sign and English mouth pattern for ‘thank you’, not the Malawi Sign language and the mouth pattern in their language – Zikomo.”
A key aim of the project, funded by the Scottish Government and the British Deaf Association, was to allow the deaf community to integrate with the rest of society. The newly trained MSL interpreters will go on to train teachers of deaf children, health care workers and vocational instructors.
Speaking to The Herald, a spokesman for Deaf Action said the charity is now seeking funding to continue the pilot scheme and give further support to the newly-trained interpreters.
One of the main barriers to deaf Malawians is the lack of access to university courses and further education programmes.
Ms Padden-Duncan added: “The students we are working with are highly intelligent, but there are very few opportunities for deaf people. So they want to teach hearing people Malawi Sign Language, and they can then go on to become interpreters so that deaf people will have better access to higher education and can improve their quality of life.”
For more information or to donate to MANAD, visit Malawi National Association of the Deaf (MANAD) : FEDOMA
In Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, the deaf community are a forgotten section of society.
But a project run by charity Deaf Action has been working to give deaf people access to the same education and training as their hearing peers.
Volunteers from Scotland have been working in Africa for the past two years to help train, assess and register sign language interpreter trainers in Malawi and Swaziland.
Begun in 2008, the two-year pilot aimed to educate 15 trainers to allow deaf people the chance to contribute to civil society developments in those countries, while giving deaf Scots the chance to become involved in international development.
Volunteer Tessa Padden-Duncan, 53, alongside Bryan Marshall of Deaf Action, has spent two years introducing a group of 12 students to Sign Language Linguistics and training them to teach Malawi Sign Language as a second language to hearing people in Malawi.
She had to learn Malawi sign language to do so. Despite the differences between Malawi Sign Language (MSL) and British Sign Language (BSL), Tessa said her experience of learning different sign languages – her mother language was Irish Sign Language with BSL second – has helped her pick up phrases.
In Malawi there are an estimated 200,000 deaf people but 98% are illiterate while only 2% have jobs and only 3% of deaf children are in deaf schools.
Begun in 2008, the project worked with Malawi National Association of the Deaf (MANAD). Deaf Action aimed to teach MSL, rather than using oral education or versions of BSL or American Sign Language.
Ms Padden-Duncan and her colleagues worked in the town of Limbe in the Montford teacher training college.
A BSL teacher for more than 20 years as well as a BSL television presenter for Channel 4 and the BBC, Ms Padden-Duncan is now a teaching fellow at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh helping to develop an undergraduate degree in BSL/English interpreting. She said: “I’m pleased to say the students have taught me quite a bit of Malawi Sign Language. I have picked it up quite quickly, helped by the fact that I already know a number of other sign languages.”
She still has the occasional lost-in-translation moment, however, with learners putting her right on occasion. “After a teaching demonstration to some hearing learners from Malawi they gave me feedback.
“The way I had welcomed them was not culturally appropriate for deaf people in Malawi. And when I said ‘thank you’, I gave the BSL sign and English mouth pattern for ‘thank you’, not the Malawi Sign language and the mouth pattern in their language – Zikomo.”
A key aim of the project, funded by the Scottish Government and the British Deaf Association, was to allow the deaf community to integrate with the rest of society. The newly trained MSL interpreters will go on to train teachers of deaf children, health care workers and vocational instructors.
Speaking to The Herald, a spokesman for Deaf Action said the charity is now seeking funding to continue the pilot scheme and give further support to the newly-trained interpreters.
One of the main barriers to deaf Malawians is the lack of access to university courses and further education programmes.
Ms Padden-Duncan added: “The students we are working with are highly intelligent, but there are very few opportunities for deaf people. So they want to teach hearing people Malawi Sign Language, and they can then go on to become interpreters so that deaf people will have better access to higher education and can improve their quality of life.”
For more information or to donate to MANAD, visit Malawi National Association of the Deaf (MANAD) : FEDOMA