The Challenge
The Yao, a tribe of 3 million living in southeastern Africa, live in the valley of death's constant shadow. This may sound dramatic, but it's no exaggeration. Consider what they face every day:
Health
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1 in 8 children die before age 6
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Only 8% of the population is over age 50
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Almost half of children under 5 (1.3 million) have their growth stunted due to malnutrition
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More than 10% of the population of Malawi are orphaned children (one or both parents have died) — that’s more than 1.7 million orphans! Approximately 1 child in 5 is an orphan – that’s hundreds of new orphans a day (about 40% are due to AIDS)
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1 in 9 people between 15 and 50 are HIV positive
Education
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Functional literacy is low, including among chiefs and leaders
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25% of children drop out of 1st grade
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Less than a fourth of children who start school complete 8th grade; only a fraction complete high school
Social
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Divorce rate is around 65%
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40% of women are physically abused by their husbands
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Polygamy is legal and common
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Love and respect between parents and children is in rapid decline. Parents and chiefs feel they have lost the next generation
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The unemployment rate is over 85%
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GDP is around $300 per person per year
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A people who feel powerless and hopeless – with sayings like “Tomorrow belongs to someone else!” and “Let me eat first” -- meaning “I need to focus on getting what I can today” and “I don’t know anything about the future” and “What will be, will be.”
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Low value on education; a high percentage of chiefs are not functionally literate
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A language in decline, and most likely destined to die without intervention
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A people ashamed of their identity, language and culture; an entire society that feels insecure and depressed
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A culture and society that is coming unglued due to external pressures (much of it coming from the West directly or indirectly)
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A tribal leadership disempowered by colonialism and subsequent political-economic events – some of it the result of global powers
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A people who are losing a sense of their past – where they are from (their history is oral), and who have lost hope for the future – who see no way forward, and so find themselves floundering in an endless and incomprehensible sequence of present moments
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Toxic social breakdown – diminished respect, almost no cooperation with each other or with their chiefs, profound cynicism and distrust
Our Purpose
New Hope Publishing creates Yao language publications designed to give hope to a tribe desperately in need of hope.
Our work has 3 focus areas:
• The translation and publication of the whole Bible in the Yao language.
• Research of the Yao language, culture, and oral history that enables the creation of high quality publications and the preservation of the Yao language and culture.
• The creation of materials that have a Biblical basis, and address relevant social and family issues.
We need your help! Join us through your donations and your prayers.