Goal and Success
Foster began his work in 1956 by convincing school officials to let him use their classrooms after hours to teach the deaf. In Ghana he found a public school willing to allow him to use their facility after hours to teach the deaf, and within months the school had a waiting list of over 300 families wanting to send their deaf children to his school. As the deaf began to become literate, Foster would supplement their education with trade skills, and, most importantly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Foster also convinced existing churches and missions to expand their ministry to include the deaf.
After staying on as the administrator of the Ghana school for three years, Foster moved on to Nigeria to repeat the successes he had seen in Ghana. It was in Ibadan, Nigeria, that he would eventually set up his headquarters and create a teacher-training facility as he continued to expand his work to over thirty countries in the West and Central regions of Africa. His work included schools, Sunday schools, churches, youth camps and teacher-training facilities reaching tens of thousands of deaf - teaching many of them not only their own names, but also the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
During 30 years of service Dr. Andrew Foster founded 31 schools and 2 centers, successively in Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Chad, Senegal, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Zaire (presently Democratic Republic of Congo), Burkina Faso, Burundi and Gabon. About the same number of Sunday Schools and churches were established in those countries, and also in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Congo and Guinea. For much of his life Dr. Andrew Foster spent six months of the year in Africa establishing schools and the other six months in the United States raising money to support these schools.
Andrew Foster is recognize highly in the deaf community. In May 2004, the National Black Deaf Advocates presented Gallaudet University with a bust of Foster sculpted by Virginia Cox. The Spring 2005 issue of Gallaudet Today had a full page picture of the sculpture on its inside back page. Gallaudet University also honored Foster in Fall 2004 by dedicating an auditorium in Foster's name. In addition, Gallaudet University has an Andrew Foster Endowment Fund (in cooperation with the NBDA) that supports the Andrew Foster Scholarship for African American deaf students at Gallaudet.
Read more about this topic: Andrew Foster (educator)
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