The mission of Make-a-Wish International is to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. The organization was born in February of 1993 to serve the five countries granting wishes outside the U.S., and now helps to serve children outside the United States in 48 countries on five continents through its 37 affiliates. Translators without Borders assists Make-a-Wish in providing high-quality translations to share stories, train volunteers and pitch supporters in their native languages.

Make-a-Wish International chose Translators without Borders as its 2010-2011 Volunteer of the Year.

Sylvia Hopkins, Vice President of Marketing at Make-A-Wish International, gave an example of how the work of Translators without Borders volunteers make a difference to children suffering from life-threatening medical conditions: “An example of some translated materials is one of our tools which we use to work with the wish children to find out their ‘one true wish’; that tool is “Wish Cards”, which is a card game the wish granters use to play with the children. The wording on the cards have been translated into six languages. Another tool for extracting wishes is our ‘Wish Book’, which has also been translated into several languages.”

Hopkins added, “Our mission has no boundaries, and we know that a smile is a smile is a smile – in any language – and laughter has no accent, yet without translations, it would be very difficult to operate in other countries.”

The most common language translation provided to Make-A-Wish International is Spanish.

Translators without Borders’ volunteer efforts have proven highly valuable to Make-A-Wish International. Hopkins noted: “From collateral materials, to the tools mentioned above, to many forms of communications to our constituents: Make-A-Wish International has benefited from TWB’s professionalism and excellent work for various projects throughout the year! Thank you!!”