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The Deaf Education Africa Foundation (D.E.A.F) is a small UK based registered charity working with Deaf people in developing Central African countries. Its registered charity number is 1081936.

Our work is focused on two key areas: Supporting Education for Deaf children and reducing poverty, hunger and isolation among Deaf people, especially Deaf women and girls. The D.E.A.F meets these challenges by working in partnership with the following African grass-roots partners:

• Local Deaf Community,
• National Association of the Deaf,
• Schools for the Deaf,
• Association of Parents of Deaf children,
• The volunteers and supporters as well a variety of local Associations of Disabled people.

In addition, D.E.A.F empowers the grass-roots partners to campaign, lobby government and politicians to change policies and practices that make inadequate education provisions for the Deaf children, thereby exacerbating poverty amongst Deaf people.

The charity is administered by a small but diverse board of Trustees, made up of five members each bringing different strengths and abilities to the organisation. Mr Robert Evans, Member of the European Parliament for London, is at present the exclusive Patron of this organisation.

The creation of this charity was the initiative of Mr Dominique Banza-Mwenze who is himself Deaf and of Africa origin. Mr Banza-Mwenze started his work as a teacher in Africa, working with Deaf children. Today, he works in the UK part-time supporting Deaf people in West London, alongside running the charity D.E.A.F.

Where our area of operation is based?

We will cover all the French speaking countries of Africa, starting in Central Africa at the following countries: (See right)

1. Democratic Republic of Congo (Capital Kinshasa)
2. Cameroon Republic (Capital Yaoundé)
3. Gabon Republic (Capital Libreville)
4. Congo Republic (Capital Brazzaville)
5. Central African Republic (Capital Bangui)

At present we have opened a local branch in Central Africa, it is based at Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This branch is staffed mainly by Deaf people from the local area. They have an extensive understanding and experience of what needs to be done for Deaf people at a local level. They are our representatives in their respective areas, managing our projects, including: consultations with the Deaf community, monitoring, evaluation of existing services, as well as financial management. We will open more branches in the other countries / regions in due course.