In South Africa, advocates for the deaf have thanked Jehovah’s Witnesses for helping deaf people to improve their lives by providing high-quality videos in South African Sign Language (SASL). This comes after the release of the books of Galatians and Ephesians of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in SASL on November 15, 2021. With this release, ten Bible books in SASL have been produced. Four more Bible books are scheduled for release by April 2022. All of these are available on jw.org and in the JW Library Sign Language app.

Minna Steyn, an education specialist and deputy chief for Western Cape Government, said of the Witnesses: “I thoroughly love to watch the signers and need to congratulate them and the organization on the standard and quality of the signing.”

Bongani Makama, president of the Federation of the Disabled in Eswatini, commented: “We commend Jehovah’s Witnesses for paving the road for inclusion of the deaf and hard-of-hearing people.” He added: “[The deaf] deserve a Bible in their language. That is why we commend Jehovah’s Witnesses for providing these Bible books to the deaf community in the language of their heart. We can’t wait to have all the 66 Bible books in sign language.”

Approximately 450,000 people in South Africa use SASL. There are 283 deaf or hard-of-hearing publishers in South Africa. As a result of the Witnesses’ efforts, “all sorts of people” are gaining an accurate knowledge of the truth, including deaf people in the South Africa branch territory.—1 Timothy 2:4.