By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
Sunshine Foundation is getting ready to return to Nicaragua at the end of September to begin another cycle of training for burn therapists in the Latin American region, this time focusing on hand rehabilitation. As we are preparing the training material, we would like to acknowledge the contribution of a group of people who are often taken for granted – the translators.
When Sunshine Foundation organizes capacity building projects or training courses to enhance burn rehabilitation capacities of professionals in other countries, there is always one obstacle to overcome: the language barrier. Indeed, in order to achieve the best training impact, apart from requiring highly skilled and knowledgeable trainers, participants also have to be able to fully and correctly understand what they are being taught. And although English is often considered a universal language, it cannot be taken as a given that everyone can speak or understand English perfectly. Sometimes, translation in local language such as Spanish or Tamil is necessary to ensure that training is a success.
The unsung heroes of our projects are the translators that help out before the training to translate course material and during the training to carry out consecutive translation. Because most of the translators we work with obviously do not have prior experience with burn rehabilitation, the amount of preparation work they need to do before every training is tremendous just to familiarize themselves with specific terms or concepts. During trainings, they must also be prepared to deal with a variety of situations and sudden demands or changes to the program. They are our voice and they also help mediate cultural differences.
Without them, capacity building projects would not be successful. Sometimes, projects like the one we have in Nicaragua would not even be possible without someone to carry out Spanish consecutive translation. Whether they’re standing in the background translating documents or they’re standing in the spotlight translating alongside the trainers, translators are crucial players in all our projects, which are made possible by the efforts, contribution and support of many people: trainers, participants and donors like you. Together as a group, we can improve rehabilitation for burn survivors.
By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
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