A recent poll conducted on ProZ showed that about 65% of the people responding didn’t know who – or what – T4K is.
I hope to use this space to enlighten you … and maybe convince you to care.
T4K is short for Translators 4 Kids. We are a global community, united to help children in need throughout the world. We are a nonprofit organization consisting of translators and language-loving people from all around the planet.
T4K was started by a group of us who saw that the power of language is an incredible one and that we thought we, as practitioners of that power, should use it for good. We decided to try to use language and our skills to connect people, improve lives and enhance human potential.
Children all over the world are suffering in many different ways. Hunger, poverty, disease and many other maladies affect them and keep them from realizing what they can be. By helping the world’s children, we think we can help the world.
T4K was created to advance a mission that is intended to:
· Help the world’s disadvantaged children
· Use our skills and experience in the world arena to promote acts of charity and implement those acts
· Become a voice for the world’s children so they may express their experiences, goals and aspirations
· Promote initiative to enhance the life potential of children from all cultures.
Ours is an all-volunteer group. Nobody gets paid, even though many put in long hours and much effort for our cause. We have no salaried administrators. Everything we do is done from the heart and from the desire to help. We are officially registered as an international charity and funded totally through support from our members and charitable donations.
We are not a political or political action group. We push no political agenda whatsoever. We are also not affiliated with any religion or religious group. Though our official headquarters are in Paris, France, we are also not affiliated with any particular government or country.
We are just people, lovers of language, who want to use our skills to help children. The world, it seems, sometimes comes up short in doing that.
Goethe said, “For just when ideas fail, a word comes along to save the situation.” We are an organization of people skilled with words in many different languages. What binds us is using those words to help make situations better for children.
We are a young organization, but we are qrowing quickly. Our membership is increasing daily and funds are coming in from many different sources. Translators, it seems, embrace the idea of using their skills to help those less fortunate in the world. We seem to be a giving, caring bunch.
There are many ways you could join our effort.
First, you could become a member. There are several different levels of membership based on how involved you want to be. Membership is only 30 Euros and you can pay through PayPal.
You can also offer your time or services so that we can advance our mission. Many translators from around the world are using their skills to help T4K help others.
You could also sponsor us and provide funds or in-kind services to our organization. However you can wish to help, we can find a way for you to do so.
The French novelist, Jean De La Fontaine said, “people must help one another; it is natures’ law.” This is what T4K is about.
Now that you know what we are maybe you can help us enforce nature’s law through the power of language.
We invite you to visit our website, www.translators4kids.org, send us and e-mail at [email protected] or contact me or Marion Schimmelpfennig personally. We’d love to have you among our caring community of words.