Language and literacy

Enable people to read the Word of God in their mother tongue.

Ethiopia is a country located in the Horn of Africa.  At least 84 languages are spoken in a country that currently has more than 120 million inhabitants. Its size is comparable to that of Ontario, Columbia, or South Africa.

There are four different language families: semitic, cushitic, nilotic, and omotic languages. All Ethiopian languages are official languages, while Amharic is the Federal work language. However, every region has the right to choose its own working language respectively.

The main purpose of the church-based literacy program is to enable people to read the Word of God in their mother tongue when the work of Bible translation is completed in that particular language. In addition to this, we aim to help students learn skills like writing a letter (whether to government bodies or to friends), simple arithmetic in the marketplace or at home, as well as reading and writing if they were ever to continue for formal education. The literacy program will help them in all these areas, and becoming literate opens many doors for the future of individuals as well as a people group as a whole.

Wycliffe Ethiopia started the literacy programs in collaboration with the Tsaara and Mursi churches. Being isolated
communities, adult education has never been provided in these areas. One of the first major achievements of Wycliffe
Ethiopia was the preparation of an orthography for the Tsaara people. The basic literacy class lasts for about a year, and in the
second year we teach a class on functional literature. Starting off in 2018, we have been able to train over 700 students in
these areas by now. In order for this work to be sustainable, we have continually trained teachers during this time.

Initially, we trained three Tsaara in the first round, and three Mursi. Presently, we have 13 Tsaara teachers that have acquired the skills and knowledge to teach adult education for the Tsaara, and the Mursi people.
We have developed various materials to support the training, and we printed 12 books:

Mursi Language

  • Primer Books
  • Literacy functional Books
  • spiritual books

Tsaara Language

  • Alphabet Books
  • Primer Books
  • Literacy Functional books
  • Spiritual Books
  • Five supplementary books
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