{"id":3058,"date":"2014-05-04T16:28:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T16:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/translatorswithoutborders.org\/twbnewsletter\/?post_type=09&p=211"},"modified":"2024-08-22T14:33:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T14:33:03","slug":"words-of-relief-takes-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/translatorswithoutborders.org\/blog\/words-of-relief-takes-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Words of Relief takes flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

During and immediately following a sudden-onset crisis, one of the most critical priorities for both relief workers and <\/span>affected populations is sending and receiving information. Yet language barriers frequently complicate this effort. Most recently, aid workers assisting survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines had to manage communications with and among populations that spoke three indigenous languages: Filipino (Tagalog), Waray-Waray, and Cebuano.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Linguistic barriers are a longstanding, if unresolved, problem in humanitarian operations. In fact, a 2011 report from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Disaster Relief 2.0<\/i>, cites lack of translation support as a \u201cperennial hidden issue\u2026delaying critical communications and disenfranchising affected populations.\u201d It was the 2010 Haiti earthquake that was the catalyst for establishing Translators without Borders to bridge this communication gap by providing humanitarian NGOs around the world with pro-bono professional translation services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And now with our Words of Relief translation crisis relief pilot in Kenya, funded by the Humanitarian Innovation Fund and Microsoft, we are tackling this issue head on. It is exciting\u2014and frankly a luxury\u2014to have the opportunity to explore the very real language and translation needs of crisis-response aid workers in a non-crisis environment. That allows us to take the time to get the various elements of the network just right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Words of Relief is a translation crisis relief network intended to improve communications when the crisis-response aid workers and affected populations do not speak the same language. It is a tool to be used prior to a crisis (when there is a warning of impending crisis), during the first 72 hours, and then in the three months following the initial crisis. The network focuses on three key components: <\/span><\/p>\n