eDEAF celebrates a decade of helping others
JOBURG – eDEAF celebrates 10 years of providing training courses to empower the deaf community.
eDEAF, an organisation which offers training courses and learnership programmes to empower deaf people is celebrating its 10th anniversary in June.
The organisation was established in 2007 by Nazereen Captieux-Bhana and Jesse Kotze. eDEAF made South African history by pioneering formal training, conducted by deaf facilitators to deaf students in their first language which is South African sign language.
Through their partnered solutions approach, the organisation strives to provide the open labour market with trained and skilled deaf people who are ready to become part of the mainstream economy.
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Over the past 10 years, the organisation has assisted close to 3 000 students in gaining formal training and finding employment with more than 120 different businesses in various fields.
“The deaf community is one of the most marginalised groups in South Africa due to the fact that they cannot communicate freely with the hearing world. As such they are often regarded as incompetent or not intelligent, and not fit to be employed. This is far from the truth,” said Captieux-Bhana.
The organisation has grown to a staff compliment of more than 50, the majority of whom are deaf, and operates from training hubs located in Braamfontein, Centurion, Belville and Berea.
“Our growth and success are due to our holistic services approach in providing continuous support to companies who have employed deaf people,” said Kotze.
eDEAF has also been instrumental in the development of an easily accessible South African Sign Language smartphone app which was launched in September last year. “The goal of this app is to bridge the communication gap between deaf and hearing people by allowing people to simply search for a word or specific phrase on any mobile device that has the free app installed,” said Captieux-Bhana.
“As we proudly reflect on a decade of empowerment and changing lives, we will continue to look at the world through the deaf community’s eyes and endeavour to show businesses that deaf people can do anything.”
For more details about eDEAF you can visit eDEAF.co.za
Tell us what you think about the eDEAF training programmes on WhatsApp 079 439 5345.
