Overview
The Ceylon Bible Society (CBS) is translating the Gospel Parables of Jesus into Sign Language for the Christian deaf community in Sri Lanka.
There are over 400,000 deaf and hearing-impaired people in Sri Lanka, of which it can be assumed 8% are Christians. The World Health Organisation in 2019 revealed that approximately 9% of the population in Sri Lanka has loss of hearing. The deaf community is marginalised socio-politically, and deaf people are unable to get required services efficiently from schools, hospitals, banks, courts and more, due to the lack of Sinhala to Sign Language interpretation support. There are only five Christian schools for the deaf, and only five church denominations translate their church services into Sign Language.
Before the year 2012 there weren’t any materials produced for Christian deaf children in Sri Lanka other than the government curriculum and other books. A visit to the School for the Deaf in Ratmalana convinced the Ceylon Bible Society of the importance of providing the children and young people with the Scriptures in their own language, Sign language.
Statistics
- 1.7 million Sri Lankans live with a disability
- 400,000 deaf or hearing-impaired people in Sri Lanka
- 8% of Sri Lankans are Christians, with an estimated 20,000 who are deaf
- Only 26 deaf schools – only 5 are Christian schools
- Only 5 church denominations translate services into Sign Language
If the appeal is oversubscribed or the project changes due to unforeseen reasons, we will reallocate remaining funds to similar projects.
