A farming project in South Africa is helping deaf people build skills and find jobs

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — At the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, farm workers are busy tilling the soil and planting tomatoes and lettuce. Despite the hive of activity, there is silence around the park.

Most people here are deaf and communicate using sign language.

They are members of the Voiceout Deaf farming collective, started by entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria, to create a platform where deaf people can develop their skills in agriculture and find sustainable work.

Victoria, who has a hearing disability herself, understood perfectly the challenges faced by deaf people when competing for opportunities with their counterparts who do not face the same challenge.

While studying at the Tshwane University of Technology in the country's capital, Pretoria, Victoria had to attend classes with a hearing partner, as the university could not make the lectures accessible for her.

It is an all-too-common challenge for deaf people, according to Victoria.

“The government does not have facilities for communication (for deaf people). A lot of deaf people did not finish school. They cannot afford to travel far to reach schools, so normally they decide to leave school early,” said Victoria.

Across South Africa, there are 44 schools for the deaf, offering sign language as a subject and using it as a medium of instruction.

Most are based far from where the students live, which sometimes leads to them dropping out of school as families struggle to afford the transportation costs.

Victoria, who used to work for Standard Bank, decided to leave her corporate job and start Voiceout as a way of allowing deaf people to gain agricultural skills.

“I make things simple for them, it is like a family when they are here. They become very much happy when they are here but when they go outside of this space, it becomes difficult for them,” she said.

For Sibongile Maake, the opportunity to learn agriculture in a space where co-workers can easily communicate with her in sign language was transformational.

It has also afforded her an opportunity to earn a living and rely less on the welfare disability grants that are paid out by the government.

“I’m happy working here, it’s (a) pleasure working here in the farm. I’m working slowly but surely and I am learning while also getting a salary. I can do things for myself, I can afford myself,” said Maake.

Another worker, who said in sign language his name was John, said the challenges of communication reduced his chances of getting a job but the Voiceout Deaf project became a lifeline for him.

“Communication is always a barrier, so coming here at the farm is very much better because they are able to communicate in my own language so it makes life much easier for me,” said John.

He and other workers are responsible for various activities at the farm including cleaning, ploughing, planting and harvesting the produce. The demand for their vegetables was so great that Voiceout Deaf has taken on two other farms, where John and his colleagues also work.

The project is breaking even: the farms currently supply some of the local supermarkets and chain stores with fresh produce.

In other South African provinces like Limpopo and North West, provincial governments are looking at farming as a source of training and employment for disabled people.

The farming sector is emerging as a solace for those with disabilities who also face the dire levels of unemployment in Africa’s most developed economy.

As she goes around giving instructions monitoring activities on the farm, which consists of 10 greenhouses, Victoria laments how difficult it often is for people using sign language to understand the jargon of developed industries.

The Pan South African Language Board is responsible for setting the country's standards for sign language. A constitutionally mandated body responsible for promoting the development and use of South African languages, it recently scored a victory by having Parliament approve sign language as South Africa’s 12th official language.

However, the board sometimes struggles to keep up with fast-evolving business language, Victoria says.

“The difficulty is that sign language has not developed to an extent that it covers technical jargon used in various sectors. It is the same in agriculture. There are certain technical words used that are there in spoken language but not in sign language," she explains.

But beyond changing official attitudes, Victoria wants to inspire change in the farmers themselves.

“We need them (the deaf farmers) to think out of the box about agriculture. They need to be empowered to understand that agriculture is involved in the production of other products like toothpastes, perfumes, medicines. This is where we have to improvise and find ways to communicate with them in the simplest way possible,” said Victoria.

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People do farming works at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Matebogo Victoria shows lettuce grown from hydroponic farming at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria, right, communicate using a sign language with co-workers as they line up strings for tomatoes at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Workers stringing tomatoes at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria communicate using a sign language with co-workers at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Workers communicate using a sign language whilst tilling the soil at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Entrepreneur Matebogo Victoria communicates using a sign language during an interview with The Associated Press at the Westonaria agricultural park near Bekkersdal, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. service member who has been missing since Iran shot down a fighter jet has been rescued, President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post early Sunday.

A frantic U.S. search-and-rescue operation unfolded after the crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle on Friday, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in the “enemy pilot.”

A second crew member was rescued earlier.

“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote.

Trump said that the aviator is injured but “will be just fine,” adding that the rescue involved “dozens of aircraft” and that the U.S. had been monitoring his location “24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue.”

The fighter jet was the first U.S. aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the conflict in late February.

Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.

In Kuwait, an Iranian drone attack caused significant damage to two power plants and put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity. No injuries were reported from the attack, the ministry said.

In Bahrain, the national oil company said that a drone attack caused a fire at one of its storage facilities, which was extinguished. It said the damage was still being assessed and no injuries had been reported.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities responded to multiple fires at the Borouge petrochemicals plant, a joint venture of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Borealis of Australia. They say the fires were caused by falling debris following successful interceptions by air defense systems, but production at the plant in Ruwais, near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, has halted.

The strike came a day after Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said generated revenue that it had used to fund the war.

The war began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.

Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy shipments that has been choked off by Tehran, by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.

But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told The Associated Press that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that Iranian officials “have never refused to go to Islamabad.”

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.

“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.

Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; and Seung Min Kim, Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley in Washington, contributed to this report.

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A bedroom is damaged in a building struck in an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

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A man looks at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh complex that officials say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)