Helping Haitians Rebuild

Raising funds to finance deserving projects is something every non-profit must master, and the challenge is exponential when your donors are global. That was the issue Zafènencountered when it launched in 2010. But it wasn’t a conundrum this online Haitian micro-credit program faced for long. Translators without Borders volunteered to translate project descriptions from English into French and Spanish, vastly expanding the number of people who might be inspired to support them.

“TWB translators have worked on more than 50 documents that we were able to share with generous people around the world seeking to empower Haitians,” said Griselda Garibay,Vincentian Family administrator for Zafèn. “And they did it all for free, which is a price non-profits can afford!”

Garibay said Translators without Borders’ work was especially valuable because the top three languages spoken by Zafèn’s Facebook users are English, French and Spanish. Furthermore, the Haitian Diaspora is active in funding projects, and many Haitians speak French. In sum, TWB has helped Zafèn successfully promote 26 individual projects in three languages that raised more than $500,000 in just seven months.

Read more »

Translators without Borders announces Platinum Sponsor: Lionbridge Technologies Inc.

Translation market leader Lionbridge increases support for US-based translation charity

One of Translators without Borders greatest supporters, Lionbridge Technologies, Inc., has become a Platinum sponsor. Lionbridge, a global leader in translation and testing solutions, has generously pledged donations to the charity in an effort to increase communication and knowledge-sharing in developing countries.

“In addition to the corporate sponsorship, Lionbridge teams across the world continue to donate their personal time to ensure that people throughout the world have access to life-saving information about health, nutrition and education. Providing support to Translators without Borders can save thousands of lives in developing countries by eliminating the language barriers that prevent people from gaining crucial information about their health and well-being,” said Paula Shannon, Chief Sales Officer and Senior Vice President of Lionbridge. “As a board member and volunteer at Translators without Borders, I am delighted to see the progress we are making as we empower people in Kenya and other developing geographies with knowledge, communication and education.”

Read more »

Translators without Borders Translator Heros: Marcia Miner

French to English American translator, Marcia Miner is one of the skilled translators who volunteer their time for Translators without Borders. In 2011, Marcia completed 41 projects, totaling 64,228 words donated to NGOs, making her the lead translator with Translator without Borders for the year.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself and your career path.

A: I’m from Glen Ridge, New Jersey, am fluent in French, and began my translation career as a bilingual secretary at Peugeot’s American headquarters when the French company was exporting cars to the States. My specialty fields are medical, children’s education, the environment, arts and literature.

Q: Why do you work with Translators without Borders?

A: After the Haitian earthquake, I responded to TWB’s appeal for translators and was accepted.  If anything I do can help in some small way to ease the burden on doctors, nurses, teachers, and administrators who are fighting to improve the lives of children and adults around the world suffering under unacceptable conditions, as well as preserve the environment, then I’m glad to do it.

Read more »

Eat, Drink and Dance for a Good Cause!

One of our Heroic Volunteers: Dominic Spurling

Our Volunteer Heroes are the engine that makes Translators without Borders run. We are a completely volunteer-run organization with a vast number of amazing people working together to make a difference. For this first issue of our newsletter, we have interviewed one of our Volunteer Heroes: Dominic Spurling, the Webmaster at TWB, a self-taught high-tech computer guy, who is in charge of the “mechanics and plumbing” of our site.

Q: If you were to write a brief wiki article about yourself, what facts and personal characteristics would you include?

A:  I grew up in a small town outside London, in Berkhamsted, on quiet streets. I used to play tennis, ride my bike, play in the garden, and dig ponds. I guess that’s when I became interested in nature. During school years, I was into science, biology and chemistry and then, when technology and computers became available, I started paying more attention to technology, computers, and programming. My parents said I had to study something “serious” at college, so I decided to go for chemistry. Currently, and for a few years now, my work is mainly about making organizations more efficient and better communicated. I love collaborating with smart people on my team, and coming up with a lot of innovative ideas.

Q: What is your role at Translators without Borders?

A:  I’m the Webmaster for the Translators without Borders’ website. I take care of the “mechanics and the plumbing”, the part you don’t get to see.

Q: What has motivated you to help Translators without Borders?

A:  My mother (a TWB board member from Rubric.com) told me Translators without Borders was in need of a Webmaster, and I found out that I could use my skills to help.

Read more »

Warm feedback received from Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland

Warm feedback received from Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland upon delivery of an editing job in English performed by volunteer Alison Jenner:

“Dear Alison,
I’m quoting hereafter the feedback received from the person in charge of our Annual Review of Medical Activities:
“Thank you very much to the editor for her excellent work on the editing of the RMPs article. That was not an easy task given the complexity of the situation described. The help of the editor was therefore very precious for us and very appreciated. A warm thank you ! Anne Kerisel” 

Wishing you a very nice day and with warm regards,
Lydia Sonderegger - MSF Switzerland “

Dying for Lack of Knowledge By Cheryl Rettig

Research clearly shows that people prefer to buy products and services in their own languages.1 This is the reason that so many businesses have undertaken translation and localization projects to transform their websites and documents from English into the native language(s) of their target markets. This seems like a pretty basic concept, but unfortunately, one that has not been adopted by many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) attempting to provide information that has the potential to save millions of lives 

For many years, numerous NGOs in Africa have been producing materials largely in English or French, based on the assumption that everyone now speaks the  languages once imposed by colonial administrations. The result of this logic is that many documents, manuals, reports, websites, posters and pamphlets are often in a language that many people can’t understand. This mistaken belief – that everyone in Africa speaks English or French (and to a lesser extent Portuguese) – has significantly reduced the effectiveness of numerous projects, including disaster relief, education, nutrition and gender equality programmes. There are many people across Africa who speak neither English nor French, and if they do, it is often their third or fourth language. The people who do speak English or French fluently often comprise the elite minority who are highly educated and live in urban areas. But the majority of Africans live in more rural areas where local languages and dialects are often spoken.2

Read more »

See what languages Translators without Borders translate to/from for humanitarian causes

Translators without Borders is working with FHOK to translate information into the languages used in Kibera.

Our founder, Lori Thicke, with Peter from FHOK and board member Andrew Bredenkamp.

Translators without Borders: one million words posted so far in 2012

The humanitarian organizations operating with Translators without Borders posted for translation 282,918 words in April and a total of 1,005,281 words during the first 4 months of 2012. This represents a 52% increase with respect to the 663K words received during the first 4 month of 2011.

A heartfelt thank you to the worthy volunteers that make these achievements possible!

Four of our volunteers praised by the Fundación Infantil Ronald McDonald

Four of our volunteers praised by the Fundación Infantil Ronald McDonald

The Fundación Infantil Ronald McDonald helps families with sick kids. In Spain they specialize in providing “a home far from home” for the families of children who are seriously ill or demand log term medical treatment far away from their familiar home.

A set of their communication tools was recently translated into French within the framework of Translators without Borders by the volunteers JacquelineG, Sophie Le Paih, Clara MESCHIA and
Agnès Bourdin. On behalf of the client, Vicente Moros provided the following feedback:

“Thanks a lot to all of you, I am very happy with your work! This is our first experience as users of the services of Translators without Borders and I was impressed by how professional, fast and effective your work was. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I am sure the families who come to our Ronald McDonald homes with their sick children will do the same. You have a special place among the collaborators of our Home. Vicente.”

Once again, thanks a lot to our valuable volunteers for your generosity and professionalism!

Enrique

Translators fight the fatal effects of the language gap

by Mark Tran

Volunteers translating health messages from English into local languages are providing a vital service for NGOs and freeing up millions of extra dollars to be used for medical aid.

Lori Thicke had an epiphany in Thange in eastern Kenya when she saw Aids orphans playing in front of posters with advice on Aids prevention. “The posters carried excellent advice, but they were in English, a language that people didn’t understand,” she said.

What was the use of this information provided by well-meaning NGOs, she wondered, if the people they were trying to reach could not read English. “People are delivering aid every day in Africa in English, French and Portuguese,” said Thicke. “That is fine for the educated elite, but they don’t need aid. It is the parents among the poor who need the information on symptoms of malaria.”

She saw the fatal effects of the language gap in India too, where mothers could have saved their children from dying from diarrhoea if they had followed the simple advice on health brochures and leaflets.

Thicke, a Canadian who came to Paris to write the great Canadian novel but founded a translation company instead, had pinpointed a glaring but little-noticed paradox in the information revolution. Thanks to the internet and mobile phones, knowledge and information is disseminated far and wide and at speed. But that knowledge is wasted unless understood by those who need it most.

Translators without Borders was founded by Thicke and Ros Smith-Thomas in 1993 after Médecins sans Frontières, the medical NGO, asked her company, Lexcelera, to work on a translation project. She asked if they needed translation often, and if giving them the words for free would be like a donation. They said yes to both questions, and TWB was born. But until that moment in Kenya two years ago, the group dealt mostly with European languages. Now Thicke is determined to bridge what she calls the “language last mile” in the developing world.

One of the group’s current projects is to teach sex workers in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, to translate material in English on sexually transmitted diseases into languages such as Swahili, Luo and Kikuyu. The project started last week, with Simon Andriesen, a specialist on medical translation who is on the TWB board. He will teach about 125 women from Kibera, who speak different languages, to translate four-page brochures in English into the different Kenyan languages.

“He is teaching them translation skills so they can reach their own people,” said Thicke. “All the girls from Kibera represent different languages. They have been recommended to us by a health NGO and their job is to pass on information to other girls. We want to provide brochures in a language that can be understood so it doesn’t get thrown away.”

Paul Warambo, a recent masters graduate in the Kiswahili language living in Nairobi said: “The health translators training has come at a time when the country urgently needs translators in every sector, but especially in the health sector where little information is available in languages that can be understood by the majority of Kenyans.”

TWB is working on an even more ambitious project with Wikipedia. The aim is to take Wikipedia entries on the most important health topics, turn them into simple English and then translate them into as many languages as possible. The articles will then be accessible for free on mobile phones through new agreements betweek Wikimedia, which runs Wikipedia, and telecoms operators. A number of Wikipedia articles covering dengue fever, Aids, malaria, cholera and tuberculosis are awaiting translation from TWB’s army of volunteers.

The group has about 2,000 translators, who have passed its translation tests. Indian languages are well served but Africa is a big gap, with only about 15 of TWB’s translators able to deal with African languages. Africa has more than 2,000 different languages, such as Amharic, Swahili and Berber, spread across six major language families. Nigeria alone has more than 500 tongues spoken within its borders.

Until the 2010 Haiti earthquake, TWB had limited reach. But the crisis revealed not only the need for translations from thousands of aid groups that need humanitarian translations but also a critical mass of translators willing to help.

So the group created an online platform to bring the two communities together. Last year, ProZ.com, the world’s largest translator organisation, created an automated translation centre for TWB so it could broaden its reach. Approved NGOs can now post translation projects such as field reports, treatment protocols and websites. Alerts then go out to the translators in those language pairs. Those who are interested in the work of that particular NGO will take on a project, translate it, and return it to the platform for delivery. Most of the projects are picked up within 15 minutes.

Translators without Borders can easily handle projects for 100 non-profits at a time, but as its volunteer community grows, so does its capacity. Over the years, it has donated almost $3m in translation services, which means that money went towards medical supplies, vaccines, rehydration kits and more.

“We are working to build a world where knowledge doesn’t have borders,” Thicke said. “With technology, and cellphone penetration in Africa, we have the potential to spread knowledge, but no one is talking about how people are getting information even if they are connected. People die not just of disease but from a lack of knowledge on how to avoid getting sick.”

Translators without Borders is just a step away from starting up a training program for healthcare translators in Kenya. And your help is needed! Please keep reading and you will find some suggestions about how you can contribute to this very important project.

Lack of African Healthcare Translators
Translators without Borders’ core role is to facilitate the work professional translators donate tohumanitarian organizations. And for most languages this works very well. In 2011, we provided around 2.5 million words to more than 70 NGOs. However, for a number of target languages we have found there are not any, or at least very few, translators available. One of these languages is Swahili, spoken (mostly as a lingua franca) by around 100 million people across nine countries in East Africa. This language area ‘covers’ hundreds of smaller languages (there are 42 languages in Kenya alone!). To remedy this problem, especially for healthcare information, we designed a healthcare translators’ training program that we will roll out in Kenya.

Why is translation in African languages important? In our visits to Africa we have discovered that people who don’t speak a European language - 70-80 percent of the population - cannot understand critical knowledge that they need to keep themselves and their families healthy. According to the former head of UNICEF, most of the children who die in Africa die not of diseases, but because of lack of knowledge. We aim to change that by building local capacity to translate critical health information so it can be understood by the people who need this information the most.

Translators without Borders warmly welcomed!
During a recent fact-finding trip we discussed our plans with the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. They warmly welcomed the initiative and immediately offered us a 150 square meter training location, walking distance from the Kenyatta National Hospital, the largest hospital in East Africa. We also spoke with many local organizations, doctors, and community healthcare workers and learned the following:

• There is indeed a shortage of healthcare translators.
• English documents, brochures and flyers are useless for many people as they don’t speak English.
• Translated materials will definitely save time for overburdened doctors, nurses, and community healthcare workers informing people about their health (or condition), and trying to prevent disease.

We also found out that translation into Swahili alone is not enough; translation training is needed for at least ten of the other Kenyan languages.

The training program
The training program is based on the MediLingua course ‘Medical-Pharmaceutical Translation’, but rewritten for people who do not need to be trained in complex matters such as how to translate extremely technical surgeons’ instructions, and also for people who are mostly new to translation. Starting this spring we will train a variety of people to translate simple but crucial healthcare information on Africa-relevant topics, including infectious diseases, STDs, reproductive health, malaria, family planning, unsafe abortions, and female genital mutilation. The introductory training will include basic modules such as:

• What is translation?
• How to build glossaries
• How to find background information
• How to deal with new terms and write clearly
• Introduction to interpretation
• How to translate and subtitle videos

read more http://translatorswithoutborders.com/newsletters/201203/07African_update.html

How can you help?
If you live in Kenya and you feel you can assist us in training people in one of the 42 local languages, please let us know. 
If you feel you have an excellent command of Swahili and/or other Kenyan languages, we would appreciate your skills in reviewing the trainees’ work and/or mentoring one or more of the trainees.

Of course, if you can’t do any of this but you want to support us, we desperately need funding. TWB is a volunteer organization, but that does not mean we don’t have expenses running the center. It is not much: we really only need $5,000 (or €4,000) a month to finance the center. Please help us set up this very important center.

Visit the Translators’ without Borders website to find instructions about how you can donate!

Author: Simon Andriesen
Board Member
simon.andriesen@medilingua.com

March 9, 2012 - News from the Translation Center

* Earlier this week the counter of translated words delivered by out volunteers through the Translation Center since January 2011 moved beyond the 3,000,000 mark, and it currently indicates 3,029,377 words translated.

* 47,000 words have been posted in the Translation Center so far during March and, as usual, top pairs are French to English (30%) and English to French (23%).

* Translators without Borders is looking for humanitarian NGOs in need of translation outside these two language pairs. If you know of any please pass the word.

How Translation Can Help Eliminate Information Disparities in Africa by Nataly Kelly

“Access to information is a basic human right,” said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, according to the World Bank Institute, at a conference on the subject last year in Accra, Ghana.   Information is also power, and more and more organizations are recognizing that it will play an essential role in Africa’s future. Having access to information enables people to do things like take care of their health, understand their rights, start businesses, and participate in political processes.

When it comes to information access, most of the discussions are about the delivery systems such as mobile phones, which in many parts of Africa are the computing devices of choice. Obviously, getting information into people’s hands is critical. But what good is it if they cannot understand that information once they receive it? Africa is home to more than 2,000 different languages spread across six major language families – Nigeria alone has more than 500 tongues spoken within its borders.  Some of them – such as Amharic, Berber, Hausa, Igbo, Oromo, Swahili, and Yoruba – are used by tens of millions of people. Read more; http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/Default.aspx?Contenttype=ArticleDetAD&tabID=63&Aid=2164&moduleId=390