Translators Without Borders Bridging Language Gaps in Humanitarian Aid

Translators without Borders (TWB) is a specialized non-profit organization dedicated to providing critical translation services for humanitarian non-profits. Established in 2010 as a sister organization to Traducteurs Sans Frontières (founded in 1993 by Lori Thicke and Ros Smith-Thomas), TWB works to eliminate the language disparities that often hinder life-saving humanitarian efforts. By connecting a global community of volunteer translators with non-profit entities, TWB ensures that vital information reaches those who need it most, regardless of the language they speak.

Operational Impact and Partnerships

TWB provides essential translation support to some of the world's most prominent humanitarian organizations, including UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Medecins du Monde, and Handicap International. The organization focuses on translating crisis response materials, vital health information, and official reports for emergencies in countries such as Greece, Liberia, and Burundi. With a massive operational scale, TWB translates over 10 million words annually and has donated more than 50 million translated words to non-profits to date.

In June 2017, TWB expanded its capabilities by merging with The Rosetta Foundation (TRF), an Irish non-profit focused on relieving poverty and promoting justice through equal access to information across global languages.

The Evolution of Translation Technology

The TWB Workspace and Kató

To increase efficiency and speed, TWB collaborated with ProZ.com in May 2011 to create an automated translation platform known as the Translators without Borders Workspace. This platform allowed approved non-profits to post projects that volunteers could then claim and complete. The impact was immediate: in January 2012, the organization handled 183 projects (280,000 words) across 25 language pairs, a significant jump from the manual process which had handled only 29 projects (37,000 words) in seven language pairs.

By 2015, TWB had delivered 7 million words through 780 projects to 214 aid organizations. In early 2017, the platform was upgraded to Kató, incorporating translation memory and machine-assisted translation technology to further streamline the workflow.

Volunteer Network

TWB leverages a vast network of over 26,000 volunteers (as of the post-merger period). The organization accepts applications from professional translators and those fluent in a second language. A streamlined onboarding process exists for those with certifications from the American Translators Association, Lionbridge, ProZ.com Certified PRO, or MITI qualifications.

Key Crisis Initiatives

Words of Relief (WoR)

The Words of Relief project is a crisis relief network designed to improve communication between humanitarian workers and affected populations when a language barrier exists. Its primary objectives include:

• Translating key disaster messages into relevant languages and distributing them before crises hit.
• Building a global network of trained translators capable of immediate assistance.
• Developing the Words of Relief Digital Exchange (WoRDE), a crowdsourced mobile application connecting aid workers with rapid-response translation teams.

The WoR model was piloted in Nairobi, Kenya (2014-2015), focusing on Swahili and Somali, and has since been deployed for the Ebola emergency in West Africa and the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Additionally, response teams in Arabic, Persian, Greek, Kurdish, and Urdu provide rapid translations for refugees in Europe, covering health information and reception center signage.

The HealthPhone Project

TWB also partners with the Mother and Child Health and Education Trust in India to support the HealthPhone project, which creates health videos preloaded onto phones to disseminate medical knowledge in accessible formats.