Wits Language School makes interpreting history in Mauritius

A recent certificate award ceremony for Mauritian Sign Language Interpreting held at the Ministry of Social Security on 24 November 2009  in Mauritius and attended by the South African ambassador to Mauritius was testimony to a landmark event in Mauritian history – Mauritius now has its first ever MSL interpreters!

Thanks to the training team from Wits Language School led by Dr Kim Wallmach and SASLINC (Thelma Kotze, Asanda Katshwa and Bibi Ayesha Tilly), the Mauritian Deaf community now has access to MSL resource persons who can now be fully trained as interpreters, and it is hoped that this training course will be the first of many initiatives to come.

Thirty participants, comprising eight Deaf resource persons and twenty two hearing participants from education and a variety of public and private sectors attended the pilot course in MSL interpreting from 14 to 24 November 2009.  The course is the outcome of a visit to Wits University in July 2009 of a delegation from Mauritius led by Prof Vinesh Y. Hookoomsing, chairperson of the MSL Project Management Committee, with the aim of developing collaboration in the field of Deaf education and Mauritian Sign Language interpreter training.

The training course was organized by the Society for the Welfare of the Deaf (SWD) in Mauritius, in collaboration with the MSL Project Management Committee, and funded by the Mauritian Ministry of Social Security and the Decentralised Cooperation Programme (DCP) of the European Commission. The logistics, secretariat and day to day management were coordinated by Ms Arrtee Bissoonauthsing, SWD Executive Officer.

The award ceremony was graced by the presence of H.E The High Commissioner of South Africa, Mr Dumi Madubane Matabane as well as Mr A. Veerasamy, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Security, Mr S. Naidu, Coordinator of the Decentralized Cooperation Programme funded by the European Commission, Professor Vinesh Y. Hookoomsing, Chairperson of the Mauritian Sign Language Project Management Committee and Dr Noorjahan Joonas, Chairperson of the Society for the Welfare of the Deaf in Mauritius. Mr Azize Bankur, Head of the Disability Unit of the Ministry of Social Security acted as Master of Ceremonies. Another first – the first official address ever given in Mauritian Sign Language - was the Vote of Thanks, which was given by Mr Vikash Kaundun, President of the Deaf Association, Mauritius and interpreted into English by Thelma Kotze and Asanda Katshwa of SASLINC. The entire proceedings was filmed by the Mauritian Broadcasting Corporation.

In his address, Mr Matabane congratulated the trainers and highlighted the contribution South Africa has made to democracy in other countries since its own ascent to democracy in 1994. Dr Kim Wallmach presented the certificates to the participants and in her address, emphasised that MSL is the language of the Deaf in Mauritius and, as such, no initiatives should be taken without the involvement and full participation of the Deaf themselves. She also drew the audience’s attention to the fact that the Deaf and hearing participants on the course had drawn up their own code of ethics which would govern the conduct of future MSL interpreters in Mauritius. The code of ethics for MSL interpreters acknowledges interpreting as a profession, like that of medicine or law, and specifies the following: confidentiality, accuracy and completeness, impartiality, proficiency (interpreters shall not accept an assignment for which they are not qualified), professionalism, the right to earn a salary for performing professional interpreting services, and the commitment to continuing education to improve interpreting skills.  

The Training Course was unanimously acclaimed by the Deaf resource persons and the hearing students, by the Deaf Association of Mauritius and by the stakeholders as an important milestone towards fully trained interpreters, thanks to the professional and expert input from the Wits University and SASLINC trainers, and their social and human commitment.

According to Prof Hookoomsing, the course “inaugurates a most promising collaboration between Mauritius and South Africa, to be formalised by a Memorandum of Understanding with Wits University, for enhanced training in Deaf Education and MSL Interpreting and for increased capacity-building and empowerment of the Deaf in Mauritius.”