Communication is aid - but only if delivered in the right language: an interview with translators without borders on its work in danger zones
Tesseur, WineORCID: 0000-0003-4882-3623
(2019)
Communication is aid - but only if delivered in the right language: an interview with translators without borders on its work in danger zones.
Journal of War and Culture Studies, 12
(3).
pp. 285-294.
ISSN 1752-6272
This contribution aims to shed further light on the role of languages and translation in
danger zones through an interview with Ellie Kemp, the Head of Crisis Response at Translators
without Borders (TWB), a non-profit organisation that provides language assistance in disaster
settings. In the humanitarian sector, TWB is well-known for its work in amongst others the West
Africa Ebola crisis, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Rohingya refugee response in Bangladesh, and the
recent cyclone responses in Mozambique. Next to providing translations, the organisation trains local
translators and interpreters, researches the language needs of crisis-affected people, and raises
awareness of language barriers in crisis contexts. TWB is thus active in a number of danger zones
that have not been explored fully in other contributions to this special issue, such as health
emergencies. This contribution firstly introduces TWB and its activities in more detail, and then
shares TWB’s responses to a number of questions related to the role of languages and translation in
danger zones.