MORE THAN PURE TRANSLATION… SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
PURETRANS announces sponsorship of Translators without Borders
PURETRANS is pleased to announce that we have pledged our support to help humanitarian translations reach more people around the world by becoming a silver sponsor of Translators without Borders in 2014.
Since the devastating Haiti earthquake in 2010, Translators without Borders has greatly increased the amount of humanitarian translations for aid groups, not just to those working in Haiti, but to NGOs, or non-governmental organizations, working across the globe in disaster relief, healthcare and education.
In fact, since the creation of the fully automated Translators without Borders Workspace, powered by ProZ.com, the organization has more than tripled its annual output of translations. The workspace automatically links approved non-profits to vetted professional translator volunteers who take care of key translation projects. The Translators without Borders Workspace will help the organization reach its goal of 10 million words translated per year. Translators without Borders also handles many special projects. In 2011, Translators without Borders began a collaborative effort to translate the 80 most important medical articles on English Wikipedia into other languages. This project will greatly enhance the number of people who can get vital information in their own language.
In Africa, Translators without Borders is growing language capacity by training new translators, starting in Kenya. Millions of Kenyans only speak Swahili. Unfortunately, the vital health information that is available in Kenya is often in only English or French. To counter this, Translators without Borders set up a training center in Kenya where local Kenyans are intensively trained to become professional translators. This will greatly reduce the problem.
The financial support provided by sponsors is critical to sustaining and growing the organization, particularly in under-resourced languages. "In the course of our work, we've become aware of a huge global need, which is for people in poor countries to be able to access global knowledge in their own language," explains Lori Thicke, co-founder of Translators without Borders.
“According to UNICEF more people die from lack of knowledge than from diseases. People in poor countries are simply unable to access global knowledge in a language they understand. Mobile technology may be bringing this knowledge closer to the bottom three billion, but we still need to bridge the ‘language last mile’. Translators without Borders is delivering this much needed help by developing a scalable training program so that more people will be able to access the knowledge they need in a language they understand."
The financial support provided by sponsors is critical to sustaining and growing Translators without Borders.
PURETRANS IS PROUD TO BE SUPPORTING TRANSLATORS WITHOUT BORDERS IN THIS WORK.
MORE THAN PURE TRANSLATION ... FOR THE SAKE OF OUR ENVIRONMENT
Sustainability is a prerequisite for us
We are a company that cares about the environment and this responsibility is manifested in PURETRANS' everyday business. In 2010 PURETRANS became a member of Climate Alliance, the largest municipal climate protection network in Europe. The objectives of Climate Alliance are to reduce environmentally harmful emissions and to protect the rainforests. Climate Alliance members are required to incorporate specific climate protection measures into their operations. Individual climate protection targets are specified and compliance with these targets is monitored externally. There are currently 700 of Climate Alliance businesses in Austria.
PURETRANS' climate protection measures
On sunny days, the two photovoltaic systems on the roof of our office building provide our offices with electricity. Any surplus electricity is fed into the public grid as 'green power'. If the photovoltaic systems do not generate sufficient power, then we are supplied by the certified green energy company AAE Naturstrom.
We get our hot water from a solar heating system. On cold winter days, we heat the offices using a wood chip heating system. The heat is generated from the waste material deposed of by a small landscaping and sawing business in the neighbourhood. When we renovated our office building, we placed a particular focus on the use of sustainable building materials produced in accordance with ecological criteria and containing as few toxic substances as possible.
In our everyday office work, we use office equipment procured from Memo, an eco-friendly mail order business. When purchasing technical equipment, we look for products that have been produced in an environmentally sound manner and which use as little electricity as possible