Part Two: Proposals and Projects

By Martí Olivella
Barcelona, April 20, 2003

Translation Project for India

by Eliane Carmanim Lima

Introduction

I have been coordinating the volunteer translation program at the World Social Forum since 2001, and I coordinated both volunteer and professional translations for the World Education Forum. I would like to submit a few suggestions in this respect for the next World Social Forum in India.

Beginning in 2001, a group of volunteers started organizing as a means to better prepare themselves to work as volunteer translators. Today, this group has evolved into a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that does volunteer translation work for social movements such as the World Social Forum (WSF) and has already done work for organizations that share our principles, which were themselves inspired by those guiding the WSF.

In 2002, we were able to work with the WSF Secretariat, where we did a variety of important translation work. For that year, we translated the official Web site of the WSF and the state government’s WSF Web site. The Secretariat also sent some volunteers, who were recruited from the official Web site and who joined our other volunteers and those from the Porte Alegre WSF Committee. In total, there were approximately 300 people doing written translations and simultaneous and consecutive interpretation, with the most important work done by us for the WSF that year being the two aforementioned Networks. We already have volunteers from several countries and are capable of doing translations into English, Portuguese, French, Spanish (the official languages of the WSF at the time) and Italian, as there was a large Italian delegation.

In 2003, our group was better organized and again the WSF Secretariat and Organizing Committee relied on our skills to aid in doing translations for the WSF. This year, the recruiting was smaller and basically, all of the volunteer work was carried out by our group, with some participation from other volunteers.

The Volunteers

Currently, our volunteers have come together to form a nongovernmental organization, Solidarity-Netword, which is still in its initial start-up phase. It is made up of a group of about 200 people who come from a variety of places: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Mexico, USA, Canada, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, England, Czech Republic, Germany, India, and Italy. Languages represented include speakers of Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Catalan, Swedish, Russian, Japanese, Hindi, and Arabic.

The NGO has a Web site currently under construction, which can be found at www.solidaritynetword.org. New volunteers can register on the site, and it is from the site that translations are managed. Little by little, the site is being made available in a variety of languages, including English, Japanese, Hindi, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, Thai and eventually additional languages.

The group has already done volunteer translations for other organizations and has grown quickly as word of our work has spread through the organizations with whom we have worked. There are volunteers who have been working regularly with the group since 2001.

The projects of the NGO are broad and not limited to WSF work. Expected projects in the future include a cultural group for peace, a working group for sign language and Braille, and later, a working group for linguistic studies, in addition to a study group on the WSF.

The Project

As we have already done on several occasions, our group would like to continue working with the WSF and to develop a project to that end.

Solidarity-Netword could participate by assisting in the organization of translation work needed for and during the Forum. This would entail two phases. At first, we could help facilitate the registration of new volunteers according to need and necessity of work for the next Forum.

It is important to stress that the work of our group is organized by coordinators, who manage volunteers by registering them and evaluating them for language skill, availability, and other characteristics important for carrying out high quality work. There is a coordinator according to each language group, and each coordinator must be familiar with the translators and their respective skills, as well as have language skills to be able to manage coordination duties.

With respect to the project, all initial work would be focused on recruiting new volunteers who can assist with the new language needs of the next Forum: English, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malay, Arabic, Urdu, Thai, Japanese, Mandarin, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. In the first phase, the group would also organize incoming work, recruit volunteer as well as professional translators (if necessary), and work with representatives in India in order to better prepare for translations in these languages.

All work in the first phase would be conducted virtually through our Web site and e-mail, and in an intermediary phase, a small group (2 people maximum) would be sent to network with representatives in India, as was done quite successfully here in Brazil. These contacts could mean being able to provide volunteers and even professional translators for the next Forum and could facilitate additional contacts for volunteer work (such as universities and organizations that deal with languages, the Internet, etc.).

It is important to stress also that we have a good relationship with European Social Forum volunteers, who could also work with us on this project.

Not until a later phase would a larger group (about 10 people) relocate to India to assist in coordinating translation and interpretation work as well as in doing translation and interpretation. This group would be made up of volunteers who speak at least 3 languages proficiently and who have demonstrated high quality work.

The intermediary phase would be crucial, since it would be in this stage that all volunteer activity would be organized, volunteers would be registered, and we would be able to get to know the volunteers as well as possible.

Experience has shown that previous contact is fundamental, since it is important to already have in mind some basic information about the volunteer: to know his/her degree of proficiency in the language, level of responsibility, work rhythm, and availability. Since the person is a volunteer, it is also important to know exactly to what degree this person’s work can be relied upon. Managing a large number of volunteers before and during an event can be extremely difficult, can lead to a lot of wasted time, and can mean risking the quality of work.

In addition, it is also important to have meetings and training sessions for those who are less experienced as translators, but who have a high level of language proficiency. During the last Forum, we were able to train inexperienced volunteers to do simultaneous interpretation and we obtained good results. It was important to see if more qualified volunteers were capable of doing this kind of work, as well as to give volunteers an opportunity to determine any skill in this area.

The volunteers' coordinators organize translation and interpretation activities in conjunction with the WSF Secretariat (of India), check on translations needs—which work can be done on a volunteer basis, the kind of activities required , written translations, etc. In short, it is this group which has a complete map of all translations that will take place during the event, which ones will be voluntary, what the real possibilities for them are and all the WSF needs.

During the event, the group would manage translation and interpretation activities, working with newly recruited volunteers (who come from our group or from the WSF Secretariat).

The coordinating work is quite complicated, as it requires dealing with the recruiting process and evaluating available volunteers for translation and interpretation activities. This work must be in tune with the WSF Secretariat and the Organizing Committee, since it is not an independent, but subordinate activity. Our role would only be to coordinate and manage this area according to the intentions of the WSF, as has happened at previous Forums. In another attachment, we will send an executive summary of suggestions and proposals to improve translation activities in the best way possible, which is based upon our experiences at the last 3 Forums and at the World Education Forum. There are some important errors that we believe can easily be corrected and avoided.

Resources

Our group would like to work with the Forum that will take place in India in 2004 and to that end, we would like to propose two possibilities for participation.

The dependent variables refer to our resources. Our group, Solidarity-Netword, has a fund-raising initiative aimed at providing the means to work voluntarily with organizations like the WSF, who are in need of resources. Unfortunately, our history is too recent for an immediate realization of this possibility and thus, leaves us with the following two possibilities. On the one hand, we could secure resources together with other organizations that have the conditions to help us with the burden of expenses such as travel and health insurance for one or two volunteers to take up residence a few months before the event and for ten or so volunteers to do so a few weeks before the event.

The other option would be for the WSF itself to provide these resources, including food and lodging for these people.

Among the group of volunteers, we know already that there are some people who are capable of picking up their own respective expenses.

One alternative that could be arranged is to create an “auxiliary fund”, which was in part in place for the 2003 WSF, whereby several organizations who relied on voluntary translation had some ability to pay and were able provide some resources for work carried out. This type of fund could assist in defraying the expenses of volunteers who have no personal resources but who are able to attend the event. Thus, the organizations that have the capability to defray costs could do so, and the group of ten volunteers (who are not all from Brazil) could go to India to help coordinate and translate during the 2004 Forum.

Final Comments

We are mobilizing our organization to have a greater ability to carry out our work, which includes addressing the issue of financial resources that would make it possible to realize this project. We still don’t know if we will get resources to help defray the costs (travel, food, lodging, and health insurance) of working at the next Forum, but we are preparing ourselves as such. Thus, we would like to offer our services of volunteer translation work. We are happy to offer our experience and our team, as well as the contacts we have with the European Forum, as we have already carried out a project with them.

We would like to stress that our intention is to work in accord with the WSF Secretariat and the Organizing Committee, as well as with the Indian Committee and Secretariat, as has taken place in the past (this project will also be forwarded to them).

We thank you for your attention and please feel free to contact us with questions or suggestions.

Alliance 21: Making Another World Possible Evaluations, Visions, Proposals, and Projects Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World April 2003