Customer: eDeaf
Web site: www.edeaf.co.za
Number of students: 12 in first
phase, with goal of 200 a year
Number of faculty/staff: 9
Location: South Africa
Industry: Education
Customer profile: Employ
and Empower Deaf (eDeaf) is
a service provider to the deaf
community in South Africa. Based
in Johannesburg, eDeaf works
to provide skills development
and meaningful employment
opportunities for people who are
deaf or hard of hearing as a key
enabler of their independence.
Software and services:
Microsoft IT Academy program
IT Training Offers People in South Africa an
Opportunity to “Live Their Dreams”
I n South Africa, a country where four-fifths of the population have historically been
disadvantaged in terms of education and economic opportunity, people who are
deaf or hard of hearing are an especially marginalized group. eDeaf, a small company
with a big mission, is tackling this problem. Through participation in the Microsoft® IT
Academy program, eDeaf is offering these people industry-relevant skills and certification
as a path to meaningful employment, financial empowerment, and independence.
Education Needs
Given limited education and skills training, South Africa’s population of people who
are deaf or hard of hearing struggles mightily to find work in a country where the
national unemployment rate is 22 percent and nearly 10 million people are out of work.
Those who provide services to this disadvantaged population estimate that of the half
million or so people who use sign language as their first language, two of every three
are jobless. Many of these citizens live in informal settlements outside cities, often in
poverty. Forced to subsist on monthly government disability grants of 1,100 rand
(about U.S.$109), they typically depend on family members for housing and
financial support.
South Africa’s deaf community has been marginalized further by limited access
to education. The most glaring example is the generation of adults who received an
unequal education before apartheid wa