Taking Precautions
Getting information to Nigeria’s more than 250 ethnic groups who speak more than 500 languages is also a challenge, Lori Thicke, co-founder of Danbury, Connecticut-based Translators Without Borders, said by phone. Only 70 percent of the population can be reached using the four main languages of English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, she said. The organization is helping to translate some of the Ebola prevention messages.
Ebola is “a disease of ignorance in a way because there are many precautions and people aren’t taking them,” Thicke said in a phone interview from Paris.
Seyi Taylor, the 34-year-old co-founder of Big Cabal Media, set up website Ebolafacts.com on July 28 three days after the first person died of the disease in Lagos. Since then it has received 1.5 million hits and his company is now printing fliers. The English-language site will be translated into French, Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Nigerian Pidgin. More.
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India
Local time: 22:59
Member (2011)
Italian to English
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Translators Without Borders helping to translate Ebola prevention messages
United States
Local time: 13:29
Russian to English
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Really needed. They should warn people not to eat monkeys and bats, especially. Perhaps they can send them some food so they do not have to eat bats.
Japan
Local time: 02:29
Japanese to English
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Really needed. They should warn people not to eat monkeys and bats, especially. Perhaps they can send them some food so they do not have to eat bats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWsWhypMjYM
United States
Local time: 13:29
Russian to English
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but not really appetizing--I would not take them for food, if I saw them. Chicken does not look too appetizing, either, when it has all the feathers on, to tell you honestly. I was vegetarian for a part of my life--perhaps that's why. Now, I eat certain types of meat, sporadically.
Eating monkeys and bats proves deadly these days, regardless of the national customs, so perhaps some more affluent countries could send them somme chicken at least.
France
Local time: 19:29
French to English
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I remember many years ago being part of a women's equality group who wanted to communicate with Gujerati speaking women in a factory in England. We produced leaflets in Gujerati, only to find that the women who were literate were not literate in Gujerati but in Hindi. When we produced leaflets in Hindi, the women who read them could verbally communicate the contents, in Gujerati, to the other women.
[Edited at 2014-09-06 18:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
Canada
Local time: 13:29
Spanish to English
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The National Langua... See more
The National Language Service Corps (NLSC) has reached out to Federal agencies that have an in-depth knowledge of the Ebola Outbreak and the affected communities. At this time, the NLSC does not have an assignment; however, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is working with Translators without Borders (TWB), a non-profit organization that provides translation services to support humanitarian efforts.
Since the rise of the Ebola crisis, TWB has translated posters and informational materials from the CDC, International SOS, and Doctors without Borders into Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Swahili. Most printed information about Ebola is in English or more widely spoken African languages, leaving out smaller language communities that are also affected by the virus. This issue can be addressed by providing educational materials about Ebola in the localized languages of the affected populations.
You can help! Volunteer! There are still communities that are in dire need of accurate information about the symptoms, spread, and treatment of the virus –information in the language they use every day. Specifically, there is a critical need for content in the Krio, Mende, and Temne languages. For more information about Translators without Borders and to sign up as a volunteer translator, please visit http://translatorswithoutborders.org/Volunteers/Translator-app.
Spread the Word: You can make a difference in the fight against Ebola! If you do not speak the Krio, Mende, or Temne languages, please spread the message to someone who does. ▲ Collapse
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:29
Member (2008)
Italian to English
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n20/paul-farmer/diary
I would also like to emphasise, as others have pointed out, that only translator... See more
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n20/paul-farmer/diary
I would also like to emphasise, as others have pointed out, that only translators with very specialised, accurate medical knowledge would be suitable to do the sort of work discussed in this thread. It is vital that the information imparted be correct and unambiguous. It is quite literally a matter of life and death.
[Edited at 2014-10-21 07:42 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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