[photo: Krijn van der Jagt WR413/14 SEY06DJ-6]
SEYCHELLES – More than a year has passed since the Seychelles Bible Society opened its very first bookshop in a busy suburb of the capital city, Victoria. Attracting a steady stream of customers, the new facility has marked an important turning point for Scripture availability here.
For a number of years, Seychelles suffered an acute Scripture shortage. In a report in 2001, Bible Society Chairperson Flavie Jackson wrote: “Bibles have become a rare commodity in this country” – an observation echoed in 2003 by Dr Aloo Mojola, UBS Translation Consultant, who travelled to Seychelles to assess the situation (see World Report 354/8). “Right now there’s nothing in print, not even their own New Testament, which is sold out,” he commented. “In fact, when I visited…there were no Scriptures available at all. We looked in the bookshops – no Bibles!” Despite the fact that Seychelles has very low levels of poverty, the problem was economic, as Dr Mojola explained: “Seychelles is a ‘cash-blocked’ country,” he noted. “The Bible Society of Mauritius used to send Bibles to the Seychelles, and it also financed – through UBS – the translation work on the Kreol Seselwa New Testament. All the money that was raised in Seychelles through selling the Scriptures was returned to the Bible Society of Mauritius to pay for more Scriptures. But it became impossible to exchange the local Seychelles currency into other currencies, so no more money could be sent to Mauritius. This went on for quite some time, and finally the Bible Society of Mauritius…could no longer send Scriptures to Seychelles.”
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In 2004, when the Seychelles Bible Society became a Bible Society Office in its own right, it began receiving help directly from UBS, which began supplying it with Scriptures and also pledged to help fund the Kreol Seselwa Old Testament translation project. It also recommended the establishment of a Bible depot and bookshop. Today, with the bookshop up and running, Scripture sales are used to help fund the translation project and the administration of the Society.The bookshop has made a huge difference to churches and Christians seeking Bibles and other Christian resources.“There was such a hunger for Bibles in the country but people were forced to purchase them from overseas,” says Mrs Jackson. “Now they can come to the Bible Society bookshop, which is very well-stocked and regularly replenished, and find a wide range of different Bibles, children’s Scriptures, Christian music CDs and other resources. “If churches or individual people need a specific Christian product that we do not stock they can place an order with us and we will procure it for them from our overseas suppliers. The sole purpose of the Seychelles Bible Society is to make sure that people have access to the Scriptures that they need, and we are delighted that, through the bookshop and with help from UBS, we are now able to do that.” Among the resources on sale in the bookshop are copies of the Kreol Seselwa New Testament. By the end of the year, more publications in this language will be on the shelves: a cartoon version of Proverbs and the Books of Ruth and Jonah. Depending on funding, there are also plans to publish Bible stories for children and produce audio recordings of the Gospels in Kreol Seselwa.
(WR 413/14 - 07.07)[1 photo]