21 Facts About Braam Jordaan

Braam Jordaan was born on 1981 and is a South African entrepreneur, filmmaker, animator, and activist.

Braam Jordaan is an advocate for Sign Language and human rights of Deaf people, and a board member of the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section.

In 2009, Jordaan collaborated with the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf and Marblemedia on the first children's animated dictionary of American Sign Language, which allows deaf children to look up words in their own primary language of ASL along with the English counterpart.

Braam Jordaan was interviewed by international news organizations including The Washington Times, BBC, and People magazine about the sign language interpreter scandal during the funeral services of President Nelson Mandela.

In 2014, Braam Jordaan collaborated with the Camp Mark Seven's first summer of Deaf Film Camp in making the hit song Happy by Pharrell Williams into an American Sign Language music video.

In 2019, Braam Jordaan was awarded the Order of the Baobab in recognition of his efforts in raising awareness of the importance of sign language and the human rights of people from the deaf community around the world through his colourful films and books.

Braam Jordaan was a recipient of Business in Vancouver Forty Under 40 for 2020.

In 2020, Braam Jordaan was awarded Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards for championing better education in the deaf community, on achieving global recognition for his contribution to improving the lives of persons with disabilities.

Braam Jordaan was born in Benoni, South Africa during the era of apartheid to a predominantly deaf family that later moved to Cape Town, South Africa.

Braam Jordaan attended high school at De La Bat School for the Deaf in Worcester.

At the age of 16, he attended the first-ever Deaf Youth Leadership Camp in Durban, led by Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, which led to Braam Jordaan being elected to attend the National Youth Policy Commission in Midrand in 1998.

Braam Jordaan's career began at Wicked Pixels, post-production company, creating visual effects and animation for TV commercials, with a client list that included BMW, Rabea Tea, Mitsubishi, Musica, World Wildlife Fund, American Eagle and Yardley.

Braam Jordaan created Sipho the Lion, the official mascot of the XVI World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf.

In 2010, Braam Jordaan created visual effects and animation for an award-winning short film with Gallaudet University called Gallaudet, which had over 140,000 views.

Braam Jordaan created a video montage that stretched 1,500 feet at the DeafNation World Expo in 2012.

Braam Jordaan won the DeafNation Inspiration Award for Visual Arts that year.

Braam Jordaan became a representative of the World Federation of the Deaf, an international organization that represents 70 million deaf people worldwide, and the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section, a youth section under the World Federation of the Deaf.

In 2012, during the Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival, Braam Jordaan appealed to the Hong Kong government for the development of a proper sign language curriculum and for the accessibility of sign language interpreters in their nation.

In 2014, Braam Jordaan delivered a statement about the right to an education in sign language for deaf youth and children to the Youth with Disabilities of the Seventh Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Braam Jordaan works with the United Nations and is a Youth Council Member of the UNICEF Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities.

The concept for this service was conceived seven years prior by Braam Jordaan, who began advocating for it after experiencing similar services abroad and discussing telecommunication access with President Cyril Ramaphosa upon receiving the Order of the Baobab Award in 2019.