Wycliffe South Africa invites you to join the Run for the Bibleless fun run at the Bunny Park in Benoni on March 14. The event aims to create awareness and raise funds for the organisation, which facilitates Bible translation projects across Southern Africa.

The organisation’s resource mobilisation and advocacy co-ordinator, Mesuli Tshele, said Wycliffe targets minority language groups like Mapulana, Baphuthi and amaBhaca, as well as the Kaaps, in South Africa.

“It’s interesting because there are about 7500 languages in the world, and only 10% have some sort of Bible. There are some that have got the full version, but some have a portion of the scripture or the New or Old Testament,” he said.

“At the moment, we are working in about 26 language groups – Sepulana in Limpopo and Bushbuckridge, Kaaps in Western Cape, Sephuthi in Lesotho and amaBhaca in the Eastern Cape. Most of our language groups are based in Mozambique, with some in Namibia and Angola, and recently we started talking to Malawi.”

Tshele added that this language development project aims preserve language in groups that have no written literature.

“What we’ve also recently found is that some groups only have oral culture. There is no written literature or letters. So, we have to start from scratch, developing the language. That’s what’s called language development.”

The event starts at 08:00. For more information, you may contact Tshele on 011 452 2714/5.

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