Found in Translation

On The Road Blog

By Sarah Modica on June 22nd, 2011
Category: Blog, Europe and Eurasia

Moscow, Russia – Today was the first full day of The Global Fund for Children’s Europe and Eurasia Knowledge Exchange. This three-day workshop, which is being held in Moscow, has brought together 19 GFC grantee partners from eight countries in this region. Although GFC has held Knowledge Exchange workshops in other regions over the past several years, this is the first Knowledge Exchange in Europe and Eurasia.

GFC staff members have learned many lessons from previous Knowledge Exchanges over the years, and program officers continue to improve the Knowledge Exchange with each workshop that is held. However, for every Knowledge Exchange, new challenges arise—and new solutions have to be found.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of this workshop, or at least of the first day, is translation. While GFC has held bilingual Knowledge Exchanges before, the 19 participants of this Knowledge Exchange speak more languages than we can count on one hand. So everything that is said over the next three days must be translated into at least four languages—Russian, English, Turkish, and Hungarian. With interactive activities filling up every session of the workshop, simultaneous translation with headphones isn’t logistically possible. So we must make do with consequent translation—meaning, for example, that the facilitator speaks in Russian, which is then translated into English, which is then translated in Turkish and Hungarian…which means everything takes four times longer to say.

As Joe Bednarek, the GFC program officer leading this Knowledge Exchange, said in his opening remarks, patience and a sense of humor will be key to the success of this workshop. At the end of day 1, I can say confidently that every participant has shown both of these qualities. And despite the challenges of multiple languages and delays due to translation, it is becoming very clear that nothing has been lost in translation. In fact, bringing together participants who otherwise would never have met or been able to communicate with each other about their inspiring work is proving that there is something powerful—knowledge, partnership, and insight—being found in translation.