On 25 November, Translate.org.za won the prestigious African ICT Achiever Award for bridging the digital divide in Africa. Translate.org.za is a South African NGO dedicated to breaking down the language barriers present in the field of ICT.

An ecstatic Dwayne Bailey, founder of Translate.org.za said, 'Finally, after years of hard work promoting the importance of mother tongue languages in ICTs it is fitting that language has been recognised as a critical part of the digital divide in the same year the African Union celebrates the year of African languages.'

Translate.org.za's work has included the translation of computer software into the 11 official languages of South Africa by local translators; and more recently the creation of the first South African language keyboard ' a world first.

'This is the first Africans-helping-Africans, no strings attached free software. It has always been my dream that one day fellow South Africans would be using computers in their mother tongues,' said Bailey.

The NGO intervenes whenever technology becomes a barrier to language. For example, Venda, one of the official languages of South Africa, cannot be accurately typed on a computer. This means that Venda speakers are unable to type their own names correctly - one can only wonder how their names have been typed on their birth certificates, for example. But thanks to Translate.org.za's keyboard, Venda can be typed correctly for the first time. The same applies to the other official languages of South Africa, including Afrikaans and to a lesser extent Northern Sotho and Tswana. Translate.org.za has also developed spelling checkers in a range of South African languages.

Abe Mathibela, business development manager at Translate.org.za, and a mother tongue Sesotho speaker said, 'This recognition makes me very, very happy. It's a breakthrough, as now the common myths and fallacies that we cannot have computers in our languages have been bridged. There are a whole lot of things that can now happen across Africa to challenge the exclusion of African languages.'

On the African continent as well as worldwide, Translate.org.za has provided help and support to other passionate people wanting to start similar initiatives for their local languages. Now through the WordForge Foundation, of which Translate.org.za is a founding partner, they continue to help others both in Africa and the rest of the world.

As Bailey said, 'We hope this will lead to more localisation within South Africa and across the continent as we look forward to helping others make similar achievements in their countries.'

tags: other