Since 2011, DeafNET in partnership with De la Bat School has successfully presented the Red Star Programme (RSP) to 34 educators from 10 African countries. The Red Star program (RSP) is a training method that was developed to bridge the gap between Sign Language and reading-writing competence in learners living with Deafness or hearing loss. The method has proven to be particularly useful in raising the reading and writing levels of proficiency of Deaf learners and improving their ability to express their emotions and thoughts, improving their communication skills. Also, it equips Deaf learners with literacy, communication, and numeracy abilities on levels earlier very difficult to achieve It is also the only program of its kind, currently available in South Africa, and is innovative and ground-breaking in African Deaf Schools. Moreover, the program is having a positive impact on the lives of many Deaf learners. The first training is being conducted over 4 weeks, at De la Bat School in South Africa.
Follow-up training
After a year, a follow-up training is scheduled by the De la Bat facilitators to visit the Deaf School of the trained educators. The educators get the opportunity to share the experience on the impact of the model. The follow-up training also reinforces the skills acquired and helps the educators to transfer these skills to the deaf learners in their respective classes.