 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(August 2017) |
Christian Mission for the Deaf (CMD) is a non-profit Christian organization whose goal is the bring communication, literacy, and spirituality to deaf Africans.
| | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(August 2017) |
Christian Mission for the Deaf (CMD) is a non-profit Christian organization whose goal is the bring communication, literacy, and spirituality to deaf Africans.
The organization, originally known as Christian Mission for Deaf Africans, [1] was founded in 1956 by Andrew Foster. Prior to Andrew Foster's arrival in Africa there were almost no schools for the deaf, save a few in South Africa and Egypt.
CMD was "incorporated as a Michigan non-profit organization in 1956" [2] and received tax-exempt status in 1958. [3]
Within 30 years Andrew Foster's mission had opened a total of 31 schools and ministries for the deaf across Africa in: Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Togo, Chad, Senegal, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Burkina Faso, Burundi, Gabon, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Congo and Guinea. [4] The organization aimed to open schools and ministries for the deaf and then to turn them over to others, either the national government or evangelical churches. Some have closed due to civil war and tribal unrest. [5]
For much of the founder's life, he spent six months in Africa establishing deaf schools and six months of each year in the United States raising funding for their support. [6]
Following the death of the founder in 1987, the organization was led for several years by his wife, Berta, who had served alongside him for years. Following her death and to the present, their son Timothy Foster has served as director. [7] [8]
The organization currently supports six deaf schools in Nigeria, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and two ministry centers in Nigeria and Chad. [9] The deaf schools established by CMD make use of all communication methods, i.e. "natural gestures, formal sign language, finger-spelling, writing, reading, speech, lip-reading and hearing aids". So as to make every effort to build a foundation for literacy and access to the Bible. [10] These schools introduced American Sign Language (ASL), combining it with the indigenous Adamorobe Sign Language and spoken French, resulting in the 'Langue des Signes Franco-Africaine', variations of which are now used in many deaf schools in Africa. [11]
CMD also provides some basic job training.
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Andrew Jackson Foster (1925–1987) was an American pioneer of deaf education in several countries in Africa. In 1969, he became the first Deaf African American to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet University, the American university for the Deaf, and the first to earn a master's degree from Eastern Michigan University. He earned a second master's degree from Seattle Pacific Christian College, also in education. He founded Christian Mission for the Deaf African in 1956 and set out for Accra, Ghana, where he established the first school for the deaf in West Africa.
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Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help students achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency and success in the school and community than they would achieve with a typical classroom education. There are different language modalities used in educational setting where students get varied communication methods. A number of countries focus on training teachers to teach deaf students with a variety of approaches and have organizations to aid deaf students.
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