Training for African Consultants
Project 8810
Due to a worldwide shortage of translation consultants, SIL is aiming to train more Africans in Africa to fill this role in the Bible translation projects that are being done there. Wycliffe Bible Translators Australia is looking to help by providing part-scholarships so that some of these CiTs (Consultants in Training) can attend their training workshops.
In recent years, there has been a very positive movement towards Bible translation projects relying more on mother tongue (local) translators, and less on foreign translators, who are more likely to be involved as trainers, advisors and consultants. This newer translation project model gives the local language users much greater ownership of their own Bible translation projects, often results in a more natural translation that will be easy for people to understand and can lead to greater community involvement.
This training model can have a big, wide-spread impact. The CiTs that Wycliffe Australia sponsored for the April 2023 Grammar Workshop came from a number for different Bible translation organisations in Africa. This was intentional. They returned to their different organisations and started sharing their new knowledge with their colleagues. The impact of the training was therefore spread across different Bible translation organisations, across colleagues of the sponsored CiTs, and therefore also across many different Bible translation projects.
The final comment should come from one of the Grammar Workshop participants … “With this strategy, there is every reason for us to hope for effective and credible translation in our communities”
Partner with us
Our partnership target for 2024 is $15,000
Excess funds will go towards the following year’s target.
Baka_Bafuli MLE & Trauma Heal CAM
Project 8309
The Baka people of Cameroon and Gabon, numbering about 40,000, are one of the oldest forest peoples on the planet. They live by measured exploitation of the forest environment through hunting, fishing, gathering and harvesting of honey. The vast majority of Baka do not attend school. Children learn about the forest from an early age. Evenings are devoted to collective games and participation in songs and dances that bring families together around the campfire.
Due to the increased exploitation of forest resources through logging, mining and poaching of bushmeat, the Baka are facing increasing problems in adequately accessing forest resources. They are having difficulty adapting to a sedentary life, and are marginalised by their neighbours who use them as objects of tourism to earn money.
This project, which supports the Baka Intercultural Multilingual Education Project (BIMLEP), aims to restore dignity to the Baka people. Specifically, it aims to help Baka adults learn to read and write their language, teach them bee-keeping techniques, expose them to the Word of God which is a source of transformation and restoration, and heal them from the traumas caused by marginalisation and exploitation.
Partner with us
Budget target: AU$25,735 for 2024
Excess funds will go towards the following year’s target.
Pastor Napoleon, cluster language worker, Cameroon
God was raising up Pastor Napoleon for language work before we, Bruce and Kathy, ever went to Akwaya area in Cameroon in 2007. Once we made the connection, Pastor Napoleon completed a four-year B.A. in Bible Translation and returned to his local area in 2015 to work full-time with us. He has been the mobiliser and facilitator for the cluster of four Tivoid languages, but that has become increasingly difficult to do in the last few years. Thank God for opening up a window of opportunity for Pastor Napoleon (and a few other Iceve) to begin written translation of Luke in Iceve as part of a Luke Partnership in Nigeria! Pray for safety for him as he goes to these workshops and inspiration as he drafts Scripture. Pray for him to continue to be able to serve the other three languages too.
Lama Old Testament Translation
Project 8315
In this multi-year project, a team of local Lama translators in Togo is making steady progress at translating the Old Testament into their language.
The Lama New Testament was dedicated in 1995. An Old Testament translation project was started in 2000 in cooperation with the local church association, the Bible Society of Togo, and SIL. The translators have all received training through SIL; two have done special programs in Jerusalem, and one at his denominational theological college. This entire Bible project, including a revision of the New Testament, is just a couple of years from completion.
Partner with us
Budget target: AU$26,520 by Mar 2024 for 2024’s needs
Excess funds will go towards the following year’s target.
Moba Literacy – Africa
Project 8310
Transformation through literacy
This project, among the Moba people of northern Togo, provides new opportunities and greater choice for the poor and illiterate, and particularly for women, who make up 75% of the participants.
In a recent literacy campaign 198 Moba women and men, many of whom have had little or no previous formal schooling, took the opportunity to attend 14 different literacy classes offered by Moba teachers and supervisors funded by this program.
Kombaté, a Moba woman, wrote: “These classes have helped those of us who were not able to go to [formal] school. For me particularly, there’s been great benefit in my reading of the Word of God and in my apprenticeship [as a seamstress]”.
David was 31 when he took a Moba literacy course run at a local church. The following year he took an advanced Moba course and additional mentoring. David said it was these literacy skills in Moba that have enabled him to lead the local church and to train others how to preach the Word of God. “I thank God for inspiring the leaders of ATAPEB (Wycliffe partner in Togo) to think of us illiterates and to provide a way for our full development,” David said.
These funds cover the costs for classes, Moba teachers and supervisors, and material production. It costs approximately $100 to deliver this church-based literacy training program for each participant.
Partner with us
Our partnership target for 2024 is $28,517
If we receive extra funds, this will go towards the following year’s target.
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