As part of the 80th anniversary celebration of the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, (SSpS) in Ghana Province, the Leadership Team of Ghana, organised a five- day workshop on introduction to Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL).
The workshop held from July 13 to 17, 2026 at the SSpS Novitiate Community at Dumasua in the Sunyani Diocese was facilitated by Rev. Fr. Kouame Rene Dan Yao, SMA.
It was attended by eleven Novices with their Mistress and two Pre- Novices with their Mistress.
As part of the common mission of the SSpS congregation in reaching out to the most vulnerable in our society, the aim of the workshop was to help some members in the Province to communicate and minister to people who no fault of theirs are not able to communicate like we do.
During the few days of an interactive session on the Ghanaian Sign Language, the participants got to understand that as humans, communication is at the heart of every human relationship and every missionary commitment and so the need-to-know sign language.
Sign language differs from country to country therefore Ghanaian Sign Language is an approved or natural language used for communication in the Ghanaian deaf community.
The Deaf community does not only comprise the Deaf people but also include anyone who learns the sign language and accepts their culture with love and respect and uses it to communicate with them effectively.
Deafness is the partial or complete inability to hear sounds and this can be caused before or during birth, due to illness, accident and many other means.
So, this doesn’t make the deaf person of less value but still has his/her human dignity and must be treated with mutual love and respect.
The participants also got to understand that, in the Deaf culture, eye contact and facial expression are very important because they hear with their eyes and speak with their hands and so the need to exercise patience when interacting with them and not all Deaf people can read lips.
According to the formamides, the little knowledge they acquired during this workshop has helped changed their perspective towards Deaf people as they got to understand and value their culture and their identity.
They learned how to greet using the sign language and some basic day to day conversations such as; Good morning, how are you, I am fine, what is your name and also how to sign the Alphabets, numbers, days of the week, months of the year and many others.
It was a great opportunity given them. For them, they were very happy when they could Sign the Sign of cross, pray the Lord’s prayer and Hail Mary using the Sign Language and also create their own prayers using the Sign Language.
As part of the training, they visited Bechem School for the Deaf together with seven SSpS Sisters; five from House of Studies and two from the Novitiate community in all making a total of 22.
The visit to the School for the Deaf was to make the theory more practical where they got to face the reality, challenges and the importance of learning the sign language.
Due to the basic knowledge acquired during the workshop, they were able to socially communicate and interact with the deaf students and had a friendly game with them.
But still, there were limitations as participants could not have a deeper interaction with them due to lack of the Sign language skills, said the formamides.
In conclusion, Sign language is not just about memorizing the signs but constantly practicing it with the Deaf people and so the need to include them in our apostolate.
We as a church are encouraged to learn the sign language to help nourish the Spiritual life of our brothers and sisters who are deaf and keep them abreast with the Catholic faith through Catechism and including them in our pastoral activities so that we all can benefit and share in the oneness of Christ as one big family.
By Sr. Cynthia Addi-Chanagea, SSpS ( Catholic Sister Communicators Network, Ghana- CASCON-GH)
