Translators without Borders For several years, Translators without Borders has been translating documents for Médecins du Monde, an international humanitarian organization that provides aid to vulnerable populations around the world We talked to Médecins du Monde about the importance of translation for their work Alejandra Garcia Paton In charge of translations quality, Médecins du Monde It is important for people to know that translation and interpreting are professions and it is not anyone who speaks languages can do it. Sometimes it is tiny, small. Fine. But take into account that for almost all projects you need translations. In many cases, only for instance internal communication because you can have MDM Spain and MDM France working together in a Portuguese speaking country. MDM France can write a document in French and they have to share it with the MDM Spain. They might not know French. So, you need to translate. If you don't have it, they can't communicate. Then, once they both agree on something, then they probably have to send it to the public administration and then you need it in Portuguese. Or the African people who've been coming to France trying to get to England. The've been stuck at the North of France. We'd set up tents for them, give them access to water, sanitary conditions and all that... ...setting up showers. And they need the instructions. Something very simple. Just the instructions to tell them how to use them, what time they can use them. We would need that in Arabic, Farsi, Pushtu and the languages of those countries that for instance have been really hard to find. Thanks to volunteers you´ve been saving up that money and instead of using it for administrative purposes you´ve been using it in the field buying medicines, paying doctors You need to be aware, because people sometimes are not aware of all the amount of money they are saving up when they don't pay interpreters and they don't pay translators. Translation is essential. It is essential to have good quality documents as well because it is the basis of our work. Every dollar saved on translating materials is a dollar available for care on the front line Join us supporting Médecins du Monde and other humanitarian work around the world translatorswithoutborders.org