In Togo, a small West African country, lives a 10-year-old girl named Mawuena. She has dark skin, short hair and large, inquisitive eyes. She wears a floral T-shirt and a yellow skirt that skims just below her knees. She lives under the same roof as her four siblings, but her life is nothing like theirs.

Mawuena’s life is lonely and difficult. Everyone around her — her neighbors, her sister and brothers, her parents — speaks a language she doesn’t understand. She longs to connect with them, but she can’t.

Her parents favor her other siblings. Mawuena knows they fear her. They believe they must have done something wrong to have a child like her. In West African Voodoo, children like her are viewed as a punishment from the spirits. Mawuena wonders if she is a curse. 

Her siblings dress up in a nice uniform and go to school every day. She is hidden away.

Mawuena is Deaf, and her experience reflects those of hundreds of Deaf children in Aneho, Togo, and millions around the world.

These social and linguistic barriers have led to a misunderstanding of Deaf people and culture and have prevented people from sharing the gospel with the Deaf. Now, only 2% of the 71 million Deaf individuals in developing countries currently have access to the gospel story.

Answering the Call to the Deaf of Aneho

Converge’s Deaf Catalyst Team is a team of Deaf & hearing leaders passionate about seeing a gospel movement in every least-reached Deaf people group – in our generation. 

The Deaf Catalyst Team came alongside the 6 Degree Initiative team to start a ministry to the Deaf in Aneho. They began praying for guidance, asking God to send someone who could lead the way. 

They met Ametefé, a well-educated Togolese man who had lost his hearing later in life. He’d learned Togolese Sign, and as he learned of the plight of many of the Deaf in his city, he felt compelled to respond. He wanted Deaf children to discover the rich language of Togolese Sign, learn to read and write, and gain access to opportunities they had never dreamed of. 

So, he met with the mayor and asked about starting a Deaf school. Together, they began a survey to determine the need for such a program and found hundreds of Deaf children without access to education.

From Classroom to Congregation

When the Converge team met Ametefé, they learned that this passionate, caring Deaf teacher knows and follows Jesus.

Ametefé shared that he was passionate about helping Deaf people meet Jesus and teaching at the school, but he was stretched thin, and the school was always on the brink of closing. The team equipped him with tools to develop disciples and helped him start a business of raising chickens so he could support himself and rent a home. 

In this home, he has since started the first known Deaf church led by a Deaf pastor in Southern Togo. 

Now, people like Mawuena can find community through their shared culture at a church created specifically for them. They’re taught in their heart language. They have hope. They discover they are not cursed, but have freedom and unconditional love in their Heavenly Father. And they’re given the tools to share the gospel with others.