Responding to the European Refugee Crisis: Interpreters with a Humanitarian Missi












            ******************************************************************************************

            * Responding to the European Refugee Crisis: "Interpreters with a Humanitarian Mission"
            ******************************************************************************************
            In the first half of November 2016, by the occasion of this year’s Hieronymus’s Days dedic

            interpretation and translation skills, the Czech Union of Interpreters and Translators (Je
            a překladatelů, Czech acronym JTP) invited Barbara Delahayes from the University of Geneva
            new piece of carefully designed software which could prove to be vitally important in the 

            crisis.
            The software has been developed by a team of four through the InZone organisation, a Centr
            University of Geneva which specialises in research into innovative approaches to communica

            global disasters. The group have worked alongside the Red Cross, UN and Unicef among other
            organisations to ensure that their projects are directed to the areas of most need, and th

            a new software designed in response to this information.
            The software presented takes the form of an ‘e-learning’ module which provides clear, conc
            training for non-professional humanitarian translators. Delahayes made clear the need for 

            the event of a humanitarian crisis (whether a natural disaster, epidemic, or human conflic
            are often members of the affected community, returning residents, or short term volunteers
            no formal training in translation but are simply on the ground at the time and due to thei

            are able to help.
            Indeed there is a severe lack of professional translators, and it was noted that in Greece
            humanitarian organisations calculated that 400 translators were needed to help with the mi

            only 24 were provided. Translators are crucial in ensuring that the local community are no
            harmed through a lack of information or representation in the decision and solution-making
            in individual cases where there may be necessary administrative and legal procedures to co

            completing applications for asylum in foreign countries.
            Without training, there are potential problems with using non-professional translators, su
            tendency to skim over certain details, select only what an individual deems important info

            unintentional imposition of a bias of opinion. Thus, in this one hour module, participants
            three significant issues for translators: professionality, cultural issues, and psychologi
            awareness.

            The last aspect is particularly interesting, and Delahayes drew attention to the fact that
            awareness is crucial to ensure that translators are able to conduct their work as best as 
            recognise that their experience may also be traumatising at times. The format of the whole

            multiple choice quizzes, scenarios, and anecdotal experiences as well as the option of att
            resources so that participants can learn more about certain aspects of the training if the
            module uses a fairly basic level of English, both written and spoken, and clear formatting

            those who are not confident using technology are able to utilise the module effectively.
            Delahayes noted that this project is still a work in progress, and the hope is that it wil
            and accessible online (at disasterready.org) in early December. She hopes that the softwar

            preloaded onto flash drives and tablets so that in areas without internet access the train
            be available, and further noted that in the future it may be possible to develop the softw
            other languages such as Greek and Arabic.

            This Rapid Response module certainly has the potential to be of huge value during humanita
            addressing a need for professionalism in translating which is often neglected due to the l
            available during these situations. It will be interesting to see how effective the module 

            potential future projects that may be developed as a result of it.