As East Africa faces its worst famine in 60 years, called the children’s famine because they are least likely to survive, those of us who work with languages might wonder how we could possibly be of assistance. How much can translation help to lessen the burden of hunger and insecurity?

Translation can help a great deal, as it turns out.

Translations are necessary to enable international aid groups such as Doctors without Borders, UNICEF, Action Against Hunger and Oxfam to do their work. By donating their time and skills, Translators without Borders volunteers from around the world are freeing up hundreds of thousands of dollars that these and other NGOs can use for caring for people in the field.

But much more needs to be done. Today Translators without Borders is putting out a call for volunteers so we can increase our capacity to respond to these urgent needs. And we are looking for more diverse talents than ever before.

We have a time-critical need for people located in Silicon Valley who can help us raise awareness and funds at the next Localization World to be held October 10^th to 12^th in Santa Clara, CA. Ulrich Henes and Donna Paris, the organizers of Localization World, have kindly donated a booth to Translators without Borders, so we need people to staff the booth, a booth manager and volunteers to sell raffle tickets.

To help us raise funds Lionbridge is making another generous contribution: the famed Lionbridge AfterParty will now become a fundraising event for Translators without Borders and open to everyone. To make this a success we need an experienced Event Manager, coordinators, and a lot of helping hands. If you have some hours you can give, we can use your help!

If you are not based in Silicon Valley, or aren’t planning to be at Localization World, there are still many ways you can help. We need a Volunteer Coordinator, to help coordinate our efforts across all of our activities. This is a very key role and would be a perfect fit for a skilled project manager. Translators without Borders also needs volunteers who can make and/or edit videos, write articles, research funding programs, write grant applications, mentor translators in Africa, and of course translate. We are also looking for LSPs who can evaluate tests in different languages using the automated testing platform ProZ.com has programmed for us.

See: Speaking for TWB