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From Dwayne...
It's been a hectic, but exciting start to 2007 ~ a trip to Morocco, a visit from CNN, meetings with extremely interesting and interested parties ~ this year has started with a bang. It was excellent to have some of the WordForge team from Cambodia spend time with us at the start of the year. I am particularly pleased that programmers from developing countries in Asia and Africa are developing tools that the rest of the world uses. It's great that we are getting to set the pace and agenda, in partnership with Cambodia. Thanks for your ongoing interest and support ~ we will keep you posted as to all these exciting developments.
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 CAMBODIANS IN THE KRUGER
“We know that it is possible to do this kind of work without meeting personally ~ we have been doing it up till now, but it was great to put faces to names ~ as well as hear how a name should really be pronounced,” says Friedel Wolff, Translate.org.za's WordForge programmer, after two young Cambodians visited the South African team in February. Hok Kakada and San Titvirak, both Cambodians in their early twenties, spent a week in White River, Mpumulanga, shacking up at the ACTS HIV/Aids clinic and getting a taste of South Africa, including a bona fide Sefrikan braai*. Translate.org.za, KhmerOS and it46 are implementing the WordForge project, developing Open Source localisation tools in the form of offline and online translation tools (the project is funded by OSI and IDRC). Up till now it has been a virtual partnership, but this was a good opportunity for the Cambodian and South African teams to meet, get to know each other, receive some translation project training from Dwayne, code on joint projects and share common pieces of programming. Bushwhacking near the famed Kruger National Park seemed like a good place to do this, so off they set in the hopes of spotting the Big Five as well as get some good time together, away from the city. “Whilst we did not see all of the Big Five, the time of social interchange whilst they were here was pleasant,” says Friedel, “As well as learning more about Cambodian culture. They showed us, rather unsuccessfully, how to read their Khmer script, which is no trivial task.”
* South African barbecue
CNN VISITS TRANSLATE.ORG.ZA
Femi Oke, producer and host of CNN's Inside Africa, joined our PR Guru, Janet Sebastian, for a day around Pretoria visiting translators, end users and the Translate.org.za team. Janet and Femi's first stop was at the UNISA offices where Kholisa Phodile, one of Translate.org.za's translators and a lecturer at the university, shared her passion about mother tongue advocacy and why she is so committed to translation projects as well as the importance of people learning in their first language. Femi got to see what Kholisa's Xhosa desk top looked like and interviewed her on camera. Next stop was Hettie Dreyer, an Afrikaans end user who sang Translate.org.za's praises and raved about doing accounting work in her home language. Femi interviewed the Translate.org.za team at the office base and the day was finished off with an evening of laughter, pizza and sharing with translators, users and employees. “Watching all the people around the table – all colours, different cultures, varying languages - laughing in unity and excited about their own mother tongue, was the highlight of the entire day for me,” said Janet. We do not know when the CNN programme will be broadcast, but will let you know as soon as we do.
A CLOSER LOOK AT OUR CONNECTIONS: GETTING TO KNOW ... Mandy Njobe
Mandy Njobe is a pioneer in her own field. 'I was the first black employee in the department of IT at Technikon Natal,” says Mandy, “I worked very hard to get where I wanted to be.” Today a full-time lecturer in the IT Department of the Durban University of Technology, Mandy Njobe is one of Translate.org.za's most vibrant partners. She has organised translate@thons at the university, drawing in young people of all languages to come and translate software, amongst other things. We asked her a few questions:
Tell us a bit about your background?
I was born in a small rural farm area of Umzimkulu in Transkei. We moved around quite a bit ~ from Kroemhook to Rietvlei, where I spent most of my years of study. I later moved to Mount Free where I matriculated, and eventually via Pietermaritzburg ended up in Durban, where I am based today. I have had excellent opportunities to study at Technikon Natal as well as being offered a scholarship at the University of Westminster in London. I turned it down as I had just been accepted for a full-time position of lecturer at what was then the Durban Institute of Technology. My childhood was quite a rocky one with my parents getting divorced when I was small. We grew up very poor, all living in a one- roomed shack. We all had to work very hard to get bursaries to study and my mother studied at the same time to become a teacher. It was not an easy time, but today we all have vibrant careers. I have one beautiful daughter from my late husband, Gazu.
What are your hobbies?
I like listening to various types of music, but I enjoy spiritual songs most. I am a very inquisitive person so spend a lot of time surfing the internet for the latest technologies and research. That has become like a hobby for me.
How did you get involved with Translate.org.za?
Initially I was worried about the way that previously disadvantaged students were performing in a computer literacy class, which reminded me of my battle through my IT diploma. Most of these students do not have computers at home and I thought deeply about how I could assist these students in their learning. One thing that came through quite strongly was that English was a challenge in the learning of computers. A lot of studies have proved that English second language students find it difficult to learn in their second language. I started searching the web and guess what I found .... TRANSLATE.ORG.ZA!
What excited you about it all?
I was very moved by the fact that fellow South Africans are actually doing something about the problem. I said to myself .. I need to get hold of that organisation and see if we can come up with something to assist these students. Dwayne was awesome ~ he did not hold anything back and gave me everything I needed to help my students. He came up with the idea of translate@thons in the institution, which was quite an experience for us all. Even today, I am dishing out this software like you can never believe, as I believe that it must reach as many students as possible.
Why did you get involved?
I believe every person deserves a fair chance in education. People should not be discouraged to explore technology just because there are no means to get there, neither should they be forced to use something they are not comfortable with, just because they have no choice. People like myself have climbed a few steps of the ladder .. we need to now look back to see what we can do to help those behind us. As far as language is concerned ... I will do anything to preserve indigenous languages and anything to promote their use.
Why spend so much energy on translations?
I do it for myself, for my community and most of all, for the government to see the potential in us, that even though technology was not developed by us, we have the ability to change it and make it better for the people of this country. Technology is a worldwide bread for everyone and in a true South Africa, this goes for previously disadvantaged people as well.
PARTING SHOT – Quote of the month
"Years of research have shown that children who begin their education in their mother tongue make a better start and continue to perform better than those for whom school starts with a new language. The same applies to adults seeking to become literate. This conclusion is now widely implemented." John Daniels, Assistant Director General for Education, UNESCO.
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Dwayne Bailey
 (012) 460 1095
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www.translate.org.za
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