00:00To the beat of drums, the congregation of this Lagos church are worshipping using sign language.
00:09It's a branch of the Christian Mission for the Deaf,
00:12a church for deaf and mute people in Simolu, a suburb of Nigeria's largest city.
00:18It's offering them a sense of community in a society where the perception of people with disabilities
00:23is influenced by traditional beliefs or is even seen as a divine punishment.
00:30African society believed that deafness or blindness or any disability was a curse.
00:40So they took people to churches or fetish priests looking for a miracle.
00:47But it doesn't work like that.
00:50The fact that we can communicate with our hands, sign language, is the miracle itself.
00:57Started in 1956 during the colonial period, the church has a teaching unit for sign language
01:02and also serves as a learning centre, which Akhenremi says is vital to help deaf people understand the world better.
01:09The deaf church has a great importance for us, the deaf, because with it we come to know Christ.
01:22And it also provides us with a community for people like ourselves,
01:28whereas before we were living in isolation with our families.
01:34They don't know that there are other deaf people we can relate to.
01:40That is the importance of sign language and also the importance of the church.
01:50It's estimated that over 9 million of Nigeria's 232 million citizens are deaf or living with hearing impairment.
01:58It's important to respectけ.
02:00And there is no gap in religion.
02:02No match وهbrecht for deaf people.
02:03Your extraordinarily
02:09And there is no Laser Advisor with all that stuff.
02:15There is no problem for black and white dogs.
02:17This is still money for black people.
02:19Email the fout.
02:20isesat st.
02:21You are having a conversation with those people
02:23Both of you am blij17.
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