The typical life of a Deaf person in Angola is hard. Living expenses - food, housing, transportation, etc. - in Angola are very expensive and most Deaf can't find jobs.
Another struggle the Angola Deaf face is lack of access to technology. Data enabled phones are very expensive, so most of the Deaf can't afford them. Most of their phones are over 10 years old. This means they can't communicate with their community like Deaf in other countries. They don't have great access to video chatting, and that means video in general.
Deaf education is found wanting in Angola. The capital city has a few schools, but once you leave the city, the quality of education goes way down. The next largest city in Angola is actually quite small, and the Deaf school there suffers from that.
Lastly, there are only 3 or 4 Deaf friendly churches in Angola. They have hearing pastors with interpreters. However, none of them are found in the capital, so their reach is limited. About 20-25 people go to these services. If the people in the Capital want a religious experience, they either have to go to an un-interpreted service (that their parents go to) and not understand anything or go to a Jehovah's Witness gathering that does have an interpreter.
Angola is a huge country. Going eastward from the long Atlantic coast, the land rises to a high plateau averaging 6,000 feet in height. From there most of the land is Sahel or deciduous forest and grass. The southern coastal region is desert.
There was civil war starting after independence from Portugal in 1975 that continued until 2002. Land mines were strewn everywhere. Today the country is recovering with the economy driven by oil production. Angola has 42 indigenous, living languages spoken today.
Scripture Prayers for the Deaf in Angola.
| Profile Source: Anonymous |
