Chronicle Editor
Laurel Murangaridzirayi, [email protected]
A LOCAL organisation that caters for people with hearing impairment has introduced a project aimed at training participants in interpreting sign language in an effort to bridge the communication gap between social groups.
The Sign Language Interpreters Trust is set to train 20 candidates who will be attached to different theatre production facilities across the country in an effort to enhance the inclusion of the deaf community.
The project dubbed ‘Amplifying Deaf Performances Through Training Sign Language Interpreters in Theatre’ (ADP-TI), seeks to be the voice and the ear for the deaf.
Speaking at the inception workshop of the project in Bulawayo on Wednesday, director of Sign Language Interpreters Trust, Mr Mbiko Nxumalo, said the programme is aimed at training interpreters to support deaf groups that are performing in theatre.
“The project is aimed at training 20 interpreters who are going to be qualified interpreters to support deaf groups that are performing in Zimbabwe.
“We have got people that are in theatre, comedy and all those people are deaf and the voice that they have is through an interpreter and they have to be qualified so that the deaf voice is heard the same way it should be,” he said.
“These interpreters will be working in two ways, that is, when deaf people are performing they then change what is seen on stage into voice by taking the microphone and making voice over to those drama actions and then when hearing people are performing they come on stage and use their hands and facial expressions changing that into sign language.”
Mr Nxumalo said the programme is going to benefit both the hearing and the deaf to actually understand each other. The selection will cover areas around Bulawayo and Matabeleland provinces whilst the selected individuals are supposed to have a vast experience in sign language.
Mr Nxumalo said deaf people’s voices are not amplified in the media therefore compromising the dissemination of information.
“For a long time, deaf people have not been amplified in the media whereas we have people who do drama, poetry, and modelling but they always remain under the surface because there is a lack of trained interpreters,” he said.
“Through Culture Fund Creative Actions and EU Delegation in Zimbabwe we can actually show the whole world what the deaf people can do,” he said.
A sign language producer at Ke Yona Tv, Ms Rosemary Zhira said the project was incepted by the late Cont Mhlanga.
“After we met the late Mhlanga we believed in our project, we started working in the theatre but we needed professional interpreters who would be able to show the beauty of our work. We then met this organisation that has brought us here,” she said.
“We have been successful since then and this programme’s vision is to amplify communication of the deaf to the rest of the world.”
Online Reporter