Avatime-Vane Bible Translation Centre appeals for support
The administrators of the Avatime-Vane Literacy Bible Translation Project in the Ho West District in the Volta Region have appealed to the government and the public for support to move into bigger premises and expand its structures.
The project, which took off in 2005, has successfully translated the New Testament into the Avatime language (Sideme).
Work to translate the Old Testament into Sideme is now in progress.
The Project Manager, Divine Mununkum, who conducted the Daily Graphic round the facility last Wednesday, said the Old Testament in Sideme would be ready between six and eight years.
He said for many decades, the people of Avatime had relied on the Ewe Bible for worship and Bible studies and were now yearning for the Bible in their own language.
Mr Mununkum said an amount of US$250,000 would be required to complete the Bible translation project.
“Already, the New Testament has been translated at a cost of US$150,000,” he said.
Mother tongue
The project manager said the impact of one’s mother tongue was very crucial for learning, for which reason the project was also publishing literature for primary schools in the area in Sideme.
Still on the Old Testament, the project manager said the scripts were being drafted, after which the translators would be trained in basic translation skills before they were assigned the task.
He said the workers at the project centre, also known as the Avatime Language Centre, were all volunteers.
The manager said the project was being implemented in collaboration with the E.P. Church, Ghana, Roman Catholic Church, Global Evangelical Church, and the Church of Pentecost.
“They help us with various resources and provide us with reviewers,” Mr Mununkum told this reporter.
The New Testament in Sideme was dedicated at the Trinity College at Legon, near Accra in 2018.
Mr Mununkum said the translation project entailed a lot of work with the centre’s mother group, Institute of Linguistic Literacy and Bible Translation Organisation in Tamale.
Sideme translation
He said once the whole Bible was translated into Sideme, the gospel would be better and wider spread to the people of Avatime in their own language.
Mr Mununkum said the project currently had only nine volunteers, adding that there was a need to recruit more translators.
The chairman of the language committee of the project, Charles Djoborson, said a bigger printing press was required for the project and appealed to philanthropists and corporate bodies for assistance in that direction.
He said that would also enable the project to extend printing services to the public and raise some money.
Meanwhile, the Osie of Avatime, Osie Adza Tekpor VII, has hailed the project as a great step towards preserving the Sideme language and the development of the Avatime culture to great heights.
