Darren Townsend-Handscomb: Help us fund more interpreters in Gambia 

Support the funding of more interpreters in Gambia by clicking here.

In The Gambia there are four Gambian Sign Language Interpreters, and 39,000 Deaf people. One interpreter for every 10,000 Deaf people!

As there was no government funding for interpreting, since 2013 the Gambia Interpreter Project has worked with the Gambia Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (GADHOH) to employ and develop the skills of the four interpreters.

In the past five years we’ve: paid two community interpreters salaries and travel; provided three weeks interpreter development training; and sent three of the interpreters to the first ever African Sign Language Interpreters’ conference.

This project was meant to finish in 2018, but Deaf people asked us to train more interpreters, and as the need for this is so clear, we couldn’t say no.

So I’m now here in The Gambia, with GADHOH, meeting with government officials, college principles, and the national TV station to encourage them to employ and pay for interpreters once we train them, to ensure that interpreting is sustainable once our project ends. (We may even have persuaded the Gambian TV station to have a weekly interpreted news summary on a Sunday. Fingers crossed.)

I’m also meeting with the Deaf GSL teachers, who we will be working with to support them in developing their skills so that they can be actively involved in the new interpreter’s training.

But who’s Lamin, and what was the award?

Lamin is one of the community interpreters we sponsor, and last Friday he was interpreting with the Gambia Deaf Women’s group for their fourth anniversary celebration, as they had also invited hearing guests to their celebration.

We were meeting at Tulyaka Signs, Gambia’s first Deaf / signing restaurant, where all the staff are Deaf and use Gambian Sign Language (GSL). (Tulyaka means “can’t hear” in the local Mandinka language.)

As part of their celebration they had awards, for the longest serving member, most active members, etc. And then, whilst Lamin was interpreting, they announced the award for the “best interpreter”. And luckily I caught it all on film.

And in one video are all the reasons why this project is so important.

The Deaf women are motivated, active, they are changing the world for Deaf women in The Gambia. They visit parents who won’t let their daughters go to Deaf centres and events, give Deaf women loans when they need them, and have a lot of fun.

But when they have problems with their family, or they need to go to the hospital, they text Lamin, who always comes to interpret, for free. Because he recognises the need, there’s no one else to do it, and people won’t yet pay for interpreting.

For Deaf Gambians to be empowered with their families, to have training, be able to work, be healthy, informed, they need interpreters. Our project wants to train more interpreters so that Deaf Gambians can do all of these things.

To provide this training we need to raise £26,000. We’ve raised £5,644 (21%) so far.

If you’d like to help us achieve this, you can make a donation, or become a monthly supporter, by clicking here.

Or if your organisation may be interested in becoming a corporate sponsor, please contact Darren directly (darrenth@gmail.com)

You can also follow us on FaceBook, Instagram, and Twitter.

https://www.facebook.com/GambiaInterpreters/

https://www.instagram.com/gambiainterpreters/

https://twitter.com/gambia_terp

And this is the link to our website:

http://www.gambia-interpreters.com