Our Work
An Alphabet for the Tsaara People
The Tsaara people, around 30,000 in number, are a minority community located in Southwest Ethiopia. Until recently, their language (Tsara) was available only in oral form; they did not have an alphabet nor any written books in their mother-tongue. This was causing the language to decline, leading to a loss of part of their heritage and identity. In 2016, WE-LEAD, along with a partner organization initiated research, and after three workshops with twelve of their speakers, a working edition of an alphabet was presented to and accepted by the regional government and the Tsaara community. Using that orthography, an alphabet booklet, as well as a ‘Primer’ book, were created as instruction materials to be used for teaching Tsaara speakers how to read and write their own language.
Mursi Literacy Project
The Mursi are a Nomadic-Pastoralist people located in South-West Ethiopia. They are around 10,000 in number and all rely on the Omo River for their livelihood. Most of the population lives in isolated areas where there are no roads. They have to travel more than 60km (37 miles) in order to find any schools. WE-LEAD, in partnership with Wycliffe Ethiopia is educating community leaders and local teachers in basic and functional mother-tongue literacy.
Kunama Literacy and Development Project
The Kunama are an ethnic minority group located in South Eritrea and North Ethiopia. Being a border community, they have been victims of civil wars and countless conflicts. This has severely affected their community development and stunted their education and literacy advancement.
Xamtanga Literacy and Education Development
Xamtanga (pronounced ham-tan-ga) is a language spoken by the Agew people located in northeastern Ethiopia. They have only had access to a written form of their language in the past 27 years. This means there are little to no resources to help advance and preserve their mother-tongue.
Bible Translation
Every language group needs to hear the word of God in the language they best understand. People come to Christ through preaching of the word. But that is not enough. They need to grow into maturity and Christ-likeness. They need to bear fruit for Christ and be his witness. The only way they can achieve this level of maturity is through deep understanding of His word. Understanding of his word is possible only through regular reading or hearing of his word in the church, at home etc. in the language that they can best understand.
Languages:
Eritrea: Bilen, Nara, Kunama
Central Ethiopia: Zay, Inor
Western Ethiopia: Seze, Guama, Komo
Southern Ethiopia: Kara, Mursi, Tsara, Suri, Kwegu
Red Sea region: Ta’azi
South Sudan: Nuer
Learn more about Bible translation at https://wycliffeethiopia.org
Trauma Healing Program
The Trauma Healing project equips local churches to care for people with deep emotional and spiritual injuries caused by war, domestic violence, natural disasters, and other traumatic events. It is to let God’s word heal hurting people and bring restoration of people’s relationship with God and others.
Faith Comes by Hearing Program
In the Tigray region and other areas including Addis Ababa, Christians who could not see, were given the opportunity to hear the word of God in their own local language through the Proclaimers.
These blind believers were given their own Proclaimers and they are happily doing their devotion with their Children with the help of these devices.
Elderly people especially, those who are not able to go outside because of their health issues, are given Proclaimers and are able to start listening to the Word of God.
Many soldiers in the Tigray region are given an opportunity to hear the Word of God through the In Touch Messenger.
Spiritual maturity is being developed within the group members and also among promoters.