The first three
parts :
- Evaluation and Vision of the Future
- Proposals and Projects :
- Report on the Participatory Process Used
for the Evaluation and Future of the Alliance
- The second
stage of the Alliance |
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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.
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