South African Project Empowers the Hearing-Impaired with Farming Skills and Employment Opportunities.
In Westonaria Agricultural Park, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, fields are bustling with farmers growing tomatoes and lettuce. Despite the activity, an unusual calm prevails—most workers are hearing-impaired and communicate through sign language.
These farmers are members of the Voiceout Deaf Farming Collective, founded by entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria. Being hearing-impaired herself, Victoria established this initiative to equip individuals with farming skills and enhance their employability.
Victoria’s personal experiences with barriers in education and the workplace inspired her to create Voiceout. Many hearing-impaired individuals face obstacles in education due to limited accessibility and employment challenges stemming from communication barriers. Voiceout aims to address these issues by teaching agricultural skills and creating job opportunities.
Workers at the farm find solace in the inclusive environment. Sibongile Maake highlights how working there has transformed her life by reducing her reliance on disability grants. Another participant, John, praises the opportunity as life-changing, allowing him to overcome the communication challenges he faced elsewhere.
Thanks to the high demand for its produce, the project has expanded, supplying fresh vegetables to local supermarkets and chains.
The initiative aligns with South Africa’s recent recognition of sign language as the 12th official language, a step toward improving the visibility and rights of hearing-impaired individuals.
