We are really excited about this work that God has called us to, and feel privileged to be part of this team. We are part of a mixed team from across the world, many Tanzania staff, and volunteers working hard to produce reading materials and accurate, readable translations of the Bible in their own languages. These are supported by a small ex-patriot team, consisting of 12 Wycliffe members, from the UK, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Australia and the USA.
Alastair joins the Linguistics Team, which consists of Helen Eaton (team leader), Ludie Postmus and Zoe Lunnon. This team is researching the ten minority languages and currently trying to find the best orthography for them to be written well. This is basically an alphabet and a good consistent spelling system - that will hopefully make reading and writing easier!
Anna is working with the Literacy team, which consists of Gitti Neiderseer (team leader), Julius Msafiri, and Rev. Levant Sichone. Our current focus is on reading materials and book production. We are aiming to get lots of material printed so that there is a supply of books available to encourage new or initial readers to want to read more. We have been making story books with both traditional and Bible stories. We also make books about health and agriculture and other relevant topics. We are currently working on getting some teaching material on the spread and control of HIV/AIDS into these languages to try and curb the spread of AIDS in villages. Next year we will be starting a teacher training project to teach people who have never learnt to read or write in any language. This will later help them to transfer their reading skills into Swahili or even English.