In Rwanda, as in many under-resourced countries, deaf people are often left isolated, unable to communicate beyond their immediate family. World Jewish Relief encountered this reality during recruitment for people with disabilities for a livelihoods-focused agricultural project in Rwanda’s Eastern Province. The local partner, Farm Master Services, identified 12 individuals with profound hearing impairment. Most were unemployed or working as day labourers earning around 80 pence a day.
World Jewish Relief began planning how to include them in farm cooperative groups. However, the individuals were using different signs they had developed with their families. They first had to learn Rwandan Sign Language. But there was little material to teach it, instructions were not available. A dictionary was printed in 2009 but copies hard to find. And even when the author of the dictionary published the dictionary in digital format, it was based on written instructions, which the project participants couldn’t read. Overcoming all these obstacles was timeconsuming but worthwhile. The participants have begun forming a community – meeting peers, spending time together and experiencing something many had not known before: a sense of belonging, built through a common language.