For Immediate Release
Translators without Borders launches first ever Kenyan Translation Center
The Translators without Borders Healthcare Translation Training Center opens in Nairobi
24th April 2012 – Translators without Borders has opened its first Healthcare Translation Center to improve access to knowledge for millions of people. Based in Nairobi, the first Healthcare Translation Center will intensively train local Kenyans to be professional translators in order to get healthcare information out to the people who really need it. Supported by the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, the Healthcare Translation Center will empower Kenyan communities by forming a generation of translators. Local people will be trained to be able to translate simple and detailed vital health information into major Kenyan languages.
In Nairobi, there are adequate healthcare facilities and NGOs that provide vital health information in English or French. Unfortunately, the information is not accessible to the millions of Kenyans who speak only Swahili, the lingua franca of east Africa, or a tribal language. There are not enough professional translators to provide this information to local people. Translators without Borders is striving to build local translation capacity to turn every language barrier into a bridge to knowledge.
“People do not just die from disease. People die from lack of knowledge,” said Lori Thicke, CEO & Founder of Translators without Borders, “Information on how to live healthily tends to be in European languages. In Sub-Saharan Africa, these languages aren’t understood by nearly 80 percent of the population, cutting people off from the knowledge on how to keep themselves and their families healthy.”
The Center will train and develop local, professional translators. Trainees will get intensive language and technology training over a four-week timescale. To keep their skills up to date, they will be regularly tested and maintain links with the Center. Ultimately, the trainees will become professional translators. They will be able to earn a living from translation as well as provide volunteer time to increase dissemination of healthcare information into Kenyan languages.
“With translation, we can prevent more diseases.” said Simon Andriesen, Translators without Borders board member and manager of the training center. “In Africa, 4 out of 5 girls between 15 and 25 do not know how to protect themselves against AIDS. 4 out of 10 mothers mistakenly withhold fluids from a child who has diarrhea. The new Translators without Borders Center in Nairobi wants to empower people and create a healthier community through simply enabling an understanding of healthcare information.”
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TWB Media Contact:
Louise Law [email protected]
About Translators without Borders
The mission of Translators without Borders (and its sister organization in France, Traducteurs sans Frontières) is to translate knowledge for humanity. Translators without Borders has met that mission through quality humanitarian translations provided by a community of trained translators to vetted NGOs who focus on health, nutrition and education. On average, Translators without Borders volunteers translate millions of words per year, focusing on three types of humanitarian translations: crisis translations needed urgently to inform people in crisis, translations that support an NGO’s operations, and educational translations that directly support people in need.
Website: www.translatorswithoutborders.com
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