Today is the International Day of Sign Language. The day was set aside by the United Nations to raise awareness on the importance of sign language in the full realization of the human rights of the deaf people.
According to Malawi National Association of the Deaf (MANAD), there are over 400 thousand people who are deaf in the country.
Statistics from the World Federation of the Deaf show that there are more than 70 million deaf people world wide of which more than 80% of them live in developing countries like Malawi and collectively they use more than 300 different sign languages.
The International Day of Sign Language has been celebrated annually since 2018 as part of international week of the Deaf.
23rd September was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) in 1951.
The theme for this year is “A World Where Deaf People Everywhere Can Sign Anywhere!” in their national sign languageAnywhere!”
