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Burundi is a country in East Africa
Burundi Sign Language [lsb ] is known as LSR (Langue des Signes Burundaise)
Burundi's flag
DeafBlind (DB) Training
Most Deaf children do not learn a language at home since the only language they can learn naturally is a sign language. If they are given the opportunity to attend a Deaf school they quickly learn the sign language used by the other children, especially if they live in a dormitory. Now, imagine a DeafBlind child trying to acquire a language but not being able to attend school because DeafBlind students are not accepted on the basis that teachers have not received training on how to teach DeafBlind students.
Deaf Action Burundi contacted SIL Global Sign Languages Team asking them to provide DeafBlind training for teachers. A school in Bujumbura had about 140 students, 11 of whom were Deaf and blind (DeafBlind). There was no place in the country that trained people how to teach DeafBlind children.
In January, SIL Global Sign Languages Team assembled a team of specialists that included a DeafBlind professor, the principal of a Deaf school with a successful DeafBlind program, SIL’s Multilingual Deaf Education Coordinator, an SIL innovation and strategic planning consultant, a sign language interpreter with a DeafBlind endorsement, and videographers/photographers.
This team trained Deaf leaders, interpreters, Deaf and DeafBlind students, school staff and parents. A total of 54 people participated in the two weeks DeafBlind workshop.
The workshop covered several topics, including types of blindness, orientation and mobility, guiding the DeafBlind (co-navigators), communicating with and interpreting for a DB person, DB didactic materials (making and using teaching aids which convey information through touch), beginning sign language for parents, and more.
Five parents of DeafBlind children took two weeks off work to learn more about DeafBlindness and how to best relate to and support their children. They took part in all of the same lessons, learning and practicing things like haptic communication, how to guide a DeafBlind person and Braille. Early in the first week, the father of two DeafBlind children came with a request. He said, “I want to be able to talk to my children.” One afternoon in the workshop the parents had a sign language lesson. They wanted to learn basic words like FATHER, MOTHER, FOOD and HUNGRY. As soon as this lesson ended the same father who hoped to learn how to communicate with his children immediately went over to share what he had learned with them.
SIL GSLT partnered with the Deaf Association to provide sewing equipment and supplies for 25 Deaf in 5 provinces. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world and the Deaf are among the poorest in the country. The pandemic caused many of them to lose the means to work and feed their families. Some of them turned to prostitution. The Deaf Association asked for our help to publicize this need and enough funds were raise to provide equipment and supplies to start 25 Deaf people in their own sewing businesses. The Association provided training and business licenses.
Deaf in Burundi participated in ADMA's COVID-19 video project.
They produced an informational video in Burundi Sign Language.
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