The Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) has urged governments, churches and well meaning Nigerians to always consider the care for the needs of Persons With Disability (PWD).
Pastor Samuel Sanusi, General Secretary/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BSN, made the appeal during a facility tour of the Deaf Translation Centre in Ibadan on Wednesday.
Sanusi said it was far more expensive to translate Bibles for PWDs like the deaf than the regular Bible for the sighted.
” I want to use this opportunity to appeal to Nigerian Christians and churches to support us to make the Bible available for the deaf.
“They too, need the word of God. Unfortunately, many churches do not even have any plan for them as they only cater for the sighted.
“We are poised to break any known barriers that make the Word of God inaccessible,” he said.
Sanusi said that BSN was the only Bible Society in Africa that had a centre dedicated to the Sign Language Bible Translation.
According to him, persons with hearing impairment were without access to the Word of God before 2014.
The CEO said that BSN, in collaboration with the Deaf Opportunity Outreach International, Kenya, and the Presbyterian Church, started a project to meet the scriptural needs of the deaf community in Nigeria.
” This effort culminated in the unveiling of the first Nigerian sign language Bible for the deaf.
“The Bible, 77 Chronological Bible stories , which was in DVD format, was dedicated at the Presbyterian Church, Yaba, on November, 8, 2014.
” The translators are deaf, except one who can hear, but understands sign language.
“The translators are all trained in Kenya, We have nine staff members working in the centre, seven of them are deaf, while two are hearing,” Sanusi said.
He disclosed that the translation center was built in September, 2017 while the society added another 33 Chronological Bible stories.
“This brought the total Chronological Bible stories for the deaf in the Nigerian Sign Language to 110 as at 2017.
“This time the stories were in memory sticks which they can view with their phones.
“On June 19, 2021, we added additional 35 stories bringing the total to 145,” Sanusi said.
According to him, until 2020, there was no full Bible for the deaf globally, except the New Testament, which was only available in the United States of America..
“American Sign language Bible is one of the world’s estimated 400 Sign languages to have the full Bible.
Just as we translate for the sighted from portion to New Testament and full Bible, our aim is to provide a full Bible for the deaf in the Nigerian Sign language.
” We are currently translating Bible stories for them.
“I am happy that we can now meet the scriptural needs of the deaf, the blind and the sighted,” Sanusi said.