Why Professional Transcription Services for NGOs in Africa is a road to effective communication

While NGOs on a large scale are heaven sent to those in dire situations in Africa where they and are still availing free basic needs to poor or disadvantaged communities like food, shelter, security, free education to mention a few, the needs are further effectively communicated with the presence of professional Transcription services for NGOs in Africa.

As per languages, transcription refers to the act of transferring a recorded message into print form; this could be a video or audio. In the case of NGOs, there are those still relying on the interpreter’s ability alone to portray what the victim says which hinders effective communication at times.

Figures supporting Professional Transcription Services for NGOs in Africa

Africa has 54 countries with most of them belonging to the Developing countries basket where the biggest number of people is impoverished without the basic needs thus having lots of the people not being able to attain free education, shelter or food. Therefore, loads and tones of NGOs flock to the continent to lend an assisting hand with international supporters dishing out over $50 b each year.

It is for example documented that between the years 1997 and 2006, the number of NGOs in Kenya increased by a whopping 400%! With South Africa which is the 3rd most developed country in Africa registering 100,000 of them.

Transcription in Africa

Yes some NGO’s do use transcription services but it is not so common yet if it was, their services would more efficiently be reached to their targeted communities.

This is what usually happens at times when staff of an NGO want to assess or get information from their targeted audiences; they usually have a set of interpreters and for every question the NGO staff ask, the interpreter in turn asks it to the audience in the language they understand best and vice versa when the audience answers.

This is where some of the NGO staff stop taking whatever feedback received from the interpreters who in turn would at times have left out loads of important information or would have misinformed the audience of NGO staff to what has been said.

Therefore having a different independent transcription provider is essential because this person or company will write down every piece of information as said by the audience, interpreter and main interviewer/NGO staff .This will clearly indicate if there was any miscommunication anywhere and have it corrected so as to convey the exact message in other words accuracy which is key.

Countries with big numbers of NGOs include;

  • Uganda; is reported to be a huge base for NGOs with a religious leaning because it is estimated to be 84% of Christian faith and its hospitality to refugees from countries like Congo, Burundi and South Sudan.
  • Kenya
  • Ethiopia

By Angela Kyolaba

For  more information about Professional Transcription Services for NGOs in Africa click here.

Why It’s Important to Translate the National Anthem Into Local Languages

Patriotism has become a common theme in President Yoweri K. Museveni’s speeches during national celebrations such as Independence Day. He always talks about how we need to promote patriotism and become a people that put the interests of the country above self; in the words of John F. Kennedy, a people that don’t ask what their country can do for them but rather what they can do for their country.

President Museveni has tried to walk his talk of promoting patriotism through awarding national medals to citizens from various disciplines that he feels have played their parts well in building the nation. His government has also launched campaigns such as “Buy Uganda Build Uganda” which are all commendable. But in order to really build and entrench the spirit of patriotism among Ugandans we need to go back to the basics.

Translate the National Anthem into several local languages

Certainly the most important thing to be done to promote patriotism is to translate the National Anthem into our diverse local languages. This anthem is the embodiment of our cultural and national heritage considering how much is it sung and the feeling and intensity with which it is sung. It makes you wonder how much more it would unite and galvanize the whole nation if it was promoted among the sections of Ugandans who have no formal education.

Every Independence Day local television stations telecast clips of random Ugandans ‘murdering’ the National Anthem firstly by getting the lyrics wrong and singing it out of tune. The first words of the first stanza that go, “Oh Uganda may God uphold thee, we lay our future in thy hand…” is often sung as “Oh Uganda may God appozzi, we lay Africa in zza hand…”

To make matters worse, these clips are posted on YouTube where they generate many hits from all over the world. The first time I watched these clips of our national anthem being ‘massacred’ like that by ignorant Ugandans, I was revolted, and wanted to launch a sit-down strike outside the offices of the Minister of Education as well as the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development that should be responsible for ensuring that all Ugandans memorize and understand the national anthem as a microcosm of national culture and pride.

Come to think of it, you cannot blame uneducated Ugandan for failing to grasp the words of the beloved national anthem since they are in a foreign language. Which is why time is ripe for government to raise resources that will go into translating the national anthem into all the local languages as well as teaching it to all Ugandans both the educated and the uneducated. Yes, even the elite shouldn’t be left behind because most of them only know the first stanza but are clueless about the last two stanzas. Other possible language translation services done in different countries include;

Somali translation services

Tigrinya translation services

Yoruba translation Services

Malagasy translation services

Borrow a page from other countries  

By translating the national anthem into local languages, Uganda would be borrowing a page from other countries who have theirs in local languages. Rwanda’s national anthem is in Kinyarwanda while Tanzania’s is also composed in Kiswahili and so is the East African anthem. Even Kenya has a Kiswahili version of its national anthem (Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu). So why shouldn’t our beautiful anthem be translated into Luganda and the Bantu languages which are popular around the nation?

After all, even the churches are realizing the importance of local languages by translating the popular classic hymns into mother tongues. Pop into any church on Sunday and you will be amazed how the all popular Christian songs both old-school and contemporary, have local language versions. In fact, this trend of ‘localizing’ foreign songs is not new since in secondary schools we used to translate blockbuster tracks into local languages and perform them at socials.

Imagine then what a uniting factor it would be if all Ugandans were able to sing our national anthem correctly and in all our languages. That would mean there would be no more fumbling at social or national events and at international events that Uganda participates in, where it is sung, we would all join in heartily like true patriots sing their anthems, and the man who composed it 56 years ago, Prof. George Wilberforce Kakoma, would smile in his grave.

How Important is Professional Immigration Translation Services?

Professional Immigration Translation Services is as vital as it should be in this day and era where there are mass movements of people from Developing countries to the Developed ones in search of better lives for them and their families. While some seek to live in these new countries permanently others move simply to find better paying work which they in turn send to their families back home for purposes of building, paying fees for the school going siblings/children back home or simply to avail themselves with basic needs. It is documented that over 400,000 people from Sub Sahara Africa migrated to the U.S between 2010 and the year 2016 alone and that in the year 2017 more 420,000 people from Africa alone moved to Europe more than in the year 2013.

Professional Immigration Translation Services
Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body on the shore as a result of sea trafficking back in 2015 that saddened the world

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Need for Financial Translation Services

Has it ever struck you that Ugandan banks could be alienating potential customers by not considering financial translation services and having their transactions done in the English language? Every Ugandan bank you go to has its receipts written in English. In fact even most of the tellers and other staff in these banks speak only the official national language – English.

It’s ironic that banks that are at the forefront of preaching the gospel of developing a savings culture are the ones doing all their official business in the English language yet they know that most Ugandans are not well educated and even some of those who have attained formal education up to university level are still not fluent with the Queen’s language and prefer communicating in the local languages.

This situation in Uganda’s financial sector justifies the urgent need for financial translation services. In the capital city, Kampala, the local newspaper Bukkedde sells more copies everyday than Daily Monitor and New Vision. Even in western Uganda, Orumuri newspaper which is written in Runyankole-Rukiga sells like hotcakes because people generally prefer reading something written in their mother tongues.

This also explains why the glut of radio and television stations that saturate our country since the liberalisation of media in early 1990s are popular for broadcasting in local languages. Radio stations like Sanyu Fm, Radio One, and Capital Fm (to mention only three) which broadcast exclusively in the English language are only popular among the urban elite who are the minority compared to stations like CBS in Buganda or Radio West in Mbarara who have more listeners but broadcast in the local languages.

Need for a paradigm shift

It goes without saying that we need a paradigm shift in Uganda’s financial sector as far as communications is concerned. Those who cannot speak English language fluently don’t deserve to miss out on messages of financial and economic empowerment. Thus the time is now for banks and other financial businesses to hire financial language translators to always translate their documents into local languages for accessibility of those not articulate in the English language. Other translation services offered in various languages include;

Oromo translation services

Kinyarwanda translation services

Malagasy translation services

Somali translation services

Kirundi translation services

Chewa translation services

Tigrinya translation services among many others.

The other day a lady from one of the big insurance companies in Kampala came to persuade me to sign up for one of their educational insurance packages. She was Ugandan with a Ugandan name but she was speaking fast like a rapper and in a foreign accent that made it hard for me to grasp what she was saying. I asked her to speak in Luganda but she said she was not fluent in it though she was born and raised in Buganda. In the end I never signed up for the package she was selling because I just could not keep up with her foreign accent and fast speech.

This is another example of how the language barrier is costing business owners and financial corporations many potential customers. The proletariat who are the majority would rather keep their money in piggy banks or stash it under their mattresses than save it with banks because the banks and other companies are not speaking the language these ordinary folks understand. If they did, many banks would be booming because many people would be saving with them and we would have a robust economy. As a common saying goes, a word for the wise is enough!

Why the fuss about African Language Translation?

So, it is in 1837 that the first African Language Translation took place and it was parts of Genesis and Psalms from the good old book; The Bible from the English language to the Zulu language. Zulu is a language from the Southern parts of the African continent spoken and used but not limited to countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe spoken by 24% of the South African population although understood by almost 50% according to Wikipedia. This is the second most spoken Bantu language after the famous Shona language.

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Why the fuss about African Language Translation?