Türkiye’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) announced that it will develop a sign language dictionary for people with hearing impairments in Burundi, an East African country, to help them receive education and integrate into social life. The project aims to improve access to information and enhance educational opportunities for people with disabilities in the region.
In 2019, the IHH launched the “Barrier-Free Africa Campaign” to provide humanitarian aid to disadvantaged groups, including people with disabilities, across Africa. Under this campaign, aid has been provided in various areas, from education to health and food distribution. As part of the campaign in Burundi, a sign language dictionary covering Islamic terms for people with hearing impairments is being created.
The dictionary will contain 850 words, including Islamic terms. Each sign for a word is being carefully selected by a 10-person committee led by associate professor Mustafa Başkonak. At a special boarding school for children with hearing impairments, 78 students are receiving education, 63 of whom are hearing-impaired, and 35 of whom are orphans. While the education process continues, the school has achieved great success, ranking seventh out of 123 schools in Burundi.
“We have started working on the sign language dictionary,” said Faruk Erkılıç, the IHH coordinator for eastern and southern Africa. He emphasized that since 2017, the IHH has been carrying out various humanitarian aid projects, especially education for people with hearing impairments in the capital Bujumbura.
He added: “Since our establishment, the IHH has been striving to bring hope to people in oppressed regions. We not only work in humanitarian aid but also focus on social life in the regions we operate. At the request of the hearing-impaired people in Burundi, we started working on a sign language dictionary in Bujumbura.”
Erkılıç further noted that after learning that many essential religious terms were missing in Burundian sign language, the committee began working on a dictionary with 850 words. He stated that after the completion of the project, the dictionary will be useful not only in Burundi but also for hearing-impaired people and educators in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and this initiative will set an example for other African countries.
Başkonak, who is coordinating the dictionary project, said that 14 years ago in Türkiye, they had worked on a similar project, creating the Turkish Sign Language Religious Terms Dictionary.
“We faced the same challenges in Africa. After completing our preparations, we went to Burundi and continued our work. We decided to create a dictionary with 850 words. Additionally, we are providing education on how to read the Quran in sign language at the Ikra Education Center. Currently, we continue our work remotely, with our committee meeting twice a week to create the corresponding signs for the terms,” he said.
Başkonak further highlighted the importance of the project, stating: “In a country facing economic difficulties, it is invaluable that the IHH is undertaking such a project in special education for hearing-impaired people. Some might ask, ‘Is there no universal language in the world for such projects?’ There are some attempts, but they are not widespread. Moreover, there is no universal religious unity in terms of language, as concepts in Christianity, Judaism and Islam cannot be used interchangeably. Therefore, each culture and religion must have its own set of terminology.”