Kande’s Story

  By Scott Toncray   ENTEBBE, Uganda—In teaching indigenous people how to read and write in their own language, Wycliffe and its partners often use shell books, standardized booklets with text that can easily be translated into the local language. With graphics and formatting already inserted, shell books cover subject matter related to health, community […]

Bible translation and language development bring both spiritual and physical health information to people around the world.

By Scott Toncray

ENTEBBE, Uganda—In teaching indigenous people how to read and write in their own language, Wycliffe and its partners often use shell books, standardized booklets with text that can easily be translated into the local language.

With graphics and formatting already inserted, shell books cover subject matter related to health, community development, stories and Bible portions.

Take, for example, a shell book called Kande’s Story.

Kande, a young girl just 13 or 14, survived the turmoil inflicted on her family after her father, who was unfaithful, contracted HIV. Because he didn’t know he had it, he didn’t take any precautions to protect his wife from contracting the disease as well. Sadly, Kande’s mother learned about her husband’s disease while she was pregnant with another child; a health worker encouraged her to be tested, warning her that, if she tested positive, the disease could be passed onto her baby.

Soon after, Kande’s father died of AIDS …and her mother died during childbirth.

Though tragic, Kande’s Story is a platform used by Wycliffe personnel to educate and give hope to those infected and affected by HIV.

Kande’s Story is an easily translatable AIDS curriculum currently used in AIDS awareness workshops in 11 countries and 80 language communities in Africa—providing local-language AIDS education for the first time in most of these communities.

After Wycliffe develops a written language, the shell books are translated into a community’s mother-tongue language—the language the local community understands best. While most other AIDS education materials are available in a community’s second language, Wycliffe’s mother-tongue version is often more fully understood, providing better education and increased prevention.