Sandberg Translation Partners (STP), the world’s largest translation company specialising in the Nordic languages, has pledged its continued support to help humanitarian translations reach more people around the world by renewing its bronze sponsorship of Translators without Borders.
Translators without Borders (TWB) gives people access to vital, often life-saving, information in their own language. It does this by connecting non-profit organisations with a community of professional translators, building local language translation capacity and raising awareness of language barriers. Since 2011, TWB has translated over 30 million words in over 150 languages in the areas of crisis relief, health and education.
The organisation has responded to recent humanitarian crises by using its Words of Relief model, working with partners to provide vital information in the appropriate languages to those affected by the European refugee crisis, the Ebola crisis and the Nepal earthquake. Words of Relief ensures better communications with communities when crisis response aid workers and affected populations do not speak the same tongue.
The financial support provided by STP and other sponsors is critical to sustaining and expanding TWB’s operations. “In the course of our work, we’ve become aware of a huge need for people in poor countries to be able to access global knowledge in their own language,” said Aimee Ansari, Executive Director of Translators without Borders.
“According to UNICEF more people die from lack of knowledge than from diseases. People in poor countries are simply unable to access global knowledge in a language they understand. Mobile technology may be bringing more people information, but we still need to bridge the ‘language last mile’. Translators without Borders is delivering this much-needed help through myriad tools and programs so that more people will be able to access the knowledge they need in a language they understand.”
Commenting on the renewal of STP’s bronze sponsorship, Jesper Sandberg, the company’s executive chairman, said: “We started supporting the work of TWB after the AMTA conference in Denver in October 2010, where we met users of translation services in less commercial settings than those STP usually encounters.”
“To be reminded of how diplomats, intelligence agencies and aid workers rely on translations when making life-or-death decisions, or how refugees end up living in a vacuum due to the lack of appropriate interpreters, really puts our daily commercial realities into a humanitarian perspective. We are therefore pleased to continue to be involved in sustaining and growing Translators without Borders, which has made great progress in recent years in the volume of translations handled.”
Aimee Ansari added: “We are incredibly grateful to STP for this assistance, which is critical to enable us to support more humanitarian work around the globe.”
About Translators without Borders
Translators without Borders envisions a world where knowledge knows no language barriers. The US-based non-profit provides people access to vital knowledge in their language by partnering with humanitarian organizations. Originally founded in 1993 in France as Traducteurs sans Frontières (now its sister organization), Translators without Borders translates more than five million words per year. In 2012, the organization established a Healthcare Translator Training Center in Nairobi, Kenya. For more information and to volunteer or donate, please visit the TWB website or follow them on Twitter or Facebook.
