New additions to language app help those in the mental health and psychosocial support sector communicate with people affected by crisis in northeast Nigeria.
DANBURY, CT USA – 28 August 2018. Translators without Borders (TWB) has released the latest version of its glossary for northeast Nigeria. TWB is an international non-profit that supports people affected by crisis, giving them access to information in the language they understand.
The latest edition of the TWB Glossary for Nigeria focuses on the mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) sector in northeast Nigeria. It helps those working in the sector communicate more effectively with internally displaced people in the region using terminology that is clear, unambiguous, and less stigmatizing.
The latest edition includes words, definitions, sample sentences, and audio recordings for 301 mental health-related terms in English, Kanuri, and Hausa. TWB collaborated with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and MHPSS sector specialists to develop the glossary. The team tested it with 53 internally displaced men and women in Maiduguri’s Teachers’ Village Camp.
The glossary can be accessed on a computer, tablet, Android, or iOS device. It is available on- and offline, which is useful in a region where connectivity is often unreliable.
Initial feedback on the glossary update has been positive. “This is a very laudable work that will hasten the delivery of services to the affected people of northeast Nigeria,” writes Dr. Muhammad A. Ghuluze, a Nigerian government official working as the Director of Emergency Medical Response and Humanitarian Services, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
Interpreter training sessions include guidance on how to best use the glossary and are being conducted throughout the region. “I’ve used the glossary in four training sessions already and it has created some really fun group work with stimulating discussions,”said Thomas Eliyahu Zanghellini, the MHPSS/ Gender Based Violence Focal Point for INTERSOS, an international non-governmental organization, in Maiduguri, Nigeria.
The MHPSS version of the glossary was funded by the European Commission – Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).
The overall TWB Glossary for Nigeria now supports the MHPSS, protection, and housing, land, and property sectors. Terminology related to camp coordination and camp management will be provided next. The glossary is part of the global series of TWB Glossaries intended to standardize how important concepts and terms are conveyed in the languages of crisis-affected people.
TWB Glossaries are built with input from local language speakers, interpreters, and field workers. The goal is to provide consistent, accurate, and easily understood words in local languages. They also help interpreters and field staff feel confident in their work and give the field worker greater assurance that they can genuinely communicate with affected individuals.
Additional information on TWB Glossaries, and a link to the TWB Glossary for Nigeria, can be found here.
If you are interested in participating in an upcoming glossary training session, please contact Karolina Grzanka, TWB Nigeria Country Director, at [email protected].
About Translators without Borders
Translators without Borders (TWB) envisions a world where knowledge knows no language barriers. The US-based non-profit provides people access to vital knowledge in their language by connecting humanitarian and development organizations with a community of language professionals, building local language translation capacity, and raising awareness of language barriers. Originally founded in 1993 in France (as Traducteurs sans Frontières), TWB translates millions of words of life-saving and life-changing information a year. In 2013, TWB created the first-ever crisis relief translation service, Words of Relief, which has responded to crises every year since.
