Volunteers translating health messages from English into local
languages are providing a vital service for NGOs and freeing up
millions of extra dollars to be used for medical aid. Lori
Thicke had an epiphany in Thange in eastern Kenya when she saw
Aids orphans playing in front of posters with advice on Aids
prevention. “The posters carried excellent advice, but they were
in English, a language that people didn’t understand,” she said.
What was the use of this information provided by well-meaning
NGOs, she wondered, if the people they were trying to reach
could not read English. “People are delivering aid every day in
Africa in English, French and Portuguese,” said Thicke. “That is
fine for the educated elite, but they don’t need aid. It is the
parents among the poor who need the information on symptoms of
malaria.” She saw the fatal effects of the language gap in India
too, where mothers could have saved their children from dying
from diarrhoea if they had followed the simple advice on health
brochures and l