Interpreters & translators │ Sheila Wilkin │ Fiona Evans Wilkin
Reflecting on our recent projects, what stands out most is the sheer variety of subjects we’ve had the opportunity to work on through our translating and interpreting services.
Here’s a brief description of some of these projects, with the hope that we can include yours in the future.
Food security
Translation of reports and plans for food security projects in Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador) and South America (Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru) for a number of different organizations, including ActionAid, USAID, the International Potato Center and FAO.
Translation of a Guide for Horizontal Evaluation
A form of participatory evaluation by evaluators involved in similar projects working under similar conditions and who know the region and objectives of the project being evaluated. They are also potential users of project results and lessons learned from the evaluation.
Descriptions of FAO projects in Guatemala
Including climate change, home gardens for vegetable production, food production and livelihoods for rural women, water and sanitation, assistance for people affected by drought and/or floods, food security and nutrition, rural development and forestry management.
600 page translation of a book about the rape of women in Guatemala
Weavings of the Soul. Memory of Mayan women survivors of rape during the armed conflict. Rape committed during armed conflicts has been silenced throughout the history of humanity although it has been a common and massive practice in all wars for the purpose of subjugating peoples and the enemy through the bodies of women.
Interpretation at the presentation of Adam Kahane’s new book, Power and Love
Partially based on his experience in the Vision Guatemala Project, which started in 1998 after the end of the armed conflict, a project with which we collaborated, Adam’s book presents the argument that the two most frequently used ways of solving social problems are either to rely on violence or to try to avoid conflict at all cost. He argues that it is only through a symbiosis of power and love that we can solve our tough social problems.
The Paach Mayan ceremony
We translated the application, including a video voiceover, for the Paach Ceremony to be included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. This ceremony is an ancestral Mayan celebration in which thanks are given to nature for the good corn harvest. Transmitted from generation to generation, it encourages social cohesion and intercultural dialogue, forming a significant part of the cultural identity of the community of San Pedro Sacatepéquez in Guatemala.
Translation of life histories for UN Women
These life histories tell the stories of Guatemalan women who have experienced very significant changes in their lives through their participation in the program “Cities without Violence against Women, Safe Cities for All” in Guatemala.
Methamphetamines
We interpreted during a training session for the Guatemalan government on detecting chemical precursors used to produce methamphetamines.
Other projects included: the translation of bylaws for a prestigious private school in Guatemala, interpretation at a training course on physiotherapy, the presentation of UNESCO’s General History of Latin America, interpreting for Friendship Bridge related to micro loans for women, translation of documents on rural land rights for Mercy Corps, translation of the website for Peru Opportunity Fund, employee training video for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, interpreting during a visit to Guatemala by the US Directors of Habitat for Humanity.
How do we manage to stay on top of it all as translators/interpreters? Reference sources, particularly online ones, are essential for gleaning background information about the topic and preparing terminology. We are also very thorough about preparing bilingual terminology lists, keeping them for years and adding to them whenever we work on the same subject again. These lists might be subject based or an organization’s specific terminology since we work for the same organizations over and over again, but more about this in a future update.
