Founded in 1993, the organization’s mission is to support humanitarian work by providing free translations.

The original organization Traducteurs sans Frontières (TSF) was founded in 1993 by Lori Thicke and Ros Smith-Thomas to help translators worldwide connect with selected NGOs that work in the fields of health, nutrition and education.

Although they help to translate over two million words per year, this doesn’t even begin to meet the need – not even 1% of it, according to their official website.

In an interview with co-founder Lori Thicke in Saturday’s Huntington Post, Nataly Kelly delved into the details of TSF’s creation, mission and future goals.

Interestingly, the structure got its start through a simple request to a regular, for-profit translation agency. Thicke was working for the company Lexcelera when Médecins sans Frontières asked her for an estimate on a translation job. She looked into the concept of doing the work for free, and this was the beginning of TSF.

TSF works with professional translators who donate their words and time after going through an application process. Once approved, the translators get notifications of texts to be translated, and are able to commit to working on them if they choose to.

Recent natural disasters, especially the 2010 Haiti earthquake, have brought the importance of translation to the forefront. But TSF’s work is still fairly limited. “In monetary terms, it's equivalent to around $400,000 donated to NGOs,” explains Thicke to Kelly.

The organization’s objectives are to increase the number of words translated per year fivefold, to at least 10 million. Permanent staff will likely also play a role in the currently all-volunteer organization’s future.

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.