Baka Pygmy Multilingual Education Project
Project 8309
The Baka pygmies 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.
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Budget target: AU$22,930 for 2023
Excess funds will go towards the following year’s target.
Jam Ma Training – Cameroon
Project 8308
With so many language groups in the Central African basin now engaged in translation and language development, there is a need for more advanced, formal training of staff in the region. This would enable project workers to deepen their knowledge, and acquire new skills in their fields of specialisation.
The i-DELTA Francophone program provides academic courses at Bachelors level in various streams, such as: Media, Bible Translation, Literacy Training, and Community Scripture Engagement.
One strength of the i-DELTA program (Institut pour le Développement des Langues et de la Traduction en Afrique) is that participants are trained within a two-month cycle, which repeats over three years. This means that workers are not separated from their language program long-term, but remain largely within their assignment area, to put the skills they are learning into practice.
This project aims to raise funds for tuition for one (or more) workers from the Jam Ma group of languages (Gavar, Buwal, Mbudum) to attend i-DELTA, which begins its first year cycle in May 2021. This is an opportunity to develop the capacity and skills of local Bible translators and literacy workers in a region where there are few with formal qualifications.
(Scroll down for latest updates.)
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The target is $6670 per year for 2021 – 2023
If we receive extra funds, this will go towards the following year’s target.
Gergiko Translation – Chad
Project 8523
The Gergiko translation project began in Chad in 1992, with Wycliffe Australia members Dave & Elly Sharp being seconded to SIL Chad to work with the local church to accomplish the goal of translating the New Testament. The Gergiko New Testament was completed to type-setting stage in February 2019, with the dedication planned for December 2020.
There are some 50,000 Gergiko speakers who are mainly subsistence farmers living in the savannah region of central Chad. The majority of the Gergiko are animistic. A successful mother-tongue literacy program is in place for adults and pre-schoolers.
Currently Dave & Elly’s main assignments are with Wycliffe Australia, but Dave also continues with a part-time remote assignment helping the Gergiko translation team to revise and publish some Old Testament portions. While some progress can be made remotely, an annual trip to Chad is necessary to help the local team make progress and accomplish consultant checking goals.
The OT books needing revision and publication are: Genesis, Ruth, Jonah and a selection of Psalms.
This project enables Dave to travel to help the team each year.
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Our partnership target for 2023 is $5,000
If we receive extra funds, this 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.
Jam Ma translation – Cameroon
Project 8311
Until recent years, these three related languages: the Buwal, Mbudum, and Gavar, were only in oral use. With the help of Wycliffe linguists, Michael and Melanie Viljoen, all three now have a written script, with local teams translating Scripture portions to be used for public readings and distribution among their churches.
The Buwal team have been working independently since 2012 and have a rough initial draft of the whole New Testament. They are now involved in consultant checking and revising the drafts for their accuracy and clarity. The gospel of Luke was published in Buwal in 2015.
The Mbudum and Gavar teams both published their Gospel of Luke in November 2020. Now in 2022, all three language committees are celebrating, or expecting to dedicate, the release of the Acts of Apostles within their communities. The Mbudum were the first to publish their book of Acts in March, the Buwal in April, with the Gavar translation set to be released sometime later this year.
Funds for this project will go towards supporting the income of local members of the translation teams, encouraging literacy efforts, supplying computers and technical help, and assisting in their travel expenses to attend training seminars and consultant checking.
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Our partnership target for 2022 is $12,231. We anticipate we will need another $12,000 in 2023.
If we receive extra funds, this will go towards the following year’s target.
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.
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Our partnership target for 2023 is $14,189
If we receive extra funds, this will go towards next 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.
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Our partnership target for 2023 is $25,050
If we receive extra funds, this will go towards the following year’s target.
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