Terms of Reference Translation Company

Translation company

Organization : Aflatoun

Location: Remote/Netherlands

Job type: Consultancy

Remuneration : Translation rate proposals are expected

Deadline: 31/01/2023

The Organization

Aflatoun International is a non-profit organization, which offers social, financial & entrepreneurship education to children and young people worldwide, empowering them to make a positive change for a more equitable world. Aflatoun creates high-quality curricula for different age groups, which are contextualized to local needs and circumstances, and are implemented by over 300 partner organizations in 101 countries. Aflatoun programmes inspire children to discover their talents and put them to use, to stand up for their rights and those of their communities through active learning a problem-solving. They learn how to save, how to budget, and how to set up social and financial enterprises that benefit themselves, their families and their communities. Aflatoun has been recognized globally (Brookings, Harvard, HundrEd, Million Lives Club) for its high-impact, low-cost model, which has shown to be effective in changing the behaviors of participants across the globe.

By using a social franchise model, Aflatoun transfers curricular content, monitoring and evaluation tools, and training capacity to partner organizations, helping them enhance their existing expertise and create an efficient learning ecosystem. Aflatoun’s programmes follow an active-learning and participant-centered methodology, which combines social and financial education (SFE) through engaging participants, educators, government institutions and civil society organisations.

We are currently looking for a translation company or translator to support us in our mission.

Purpose of the consultancy

The company/translator is expected to support Aflatoun International in translating and proofreading different types of content like curricula, training manuals, brochures, etc. The company/translator should have the capacity to deliver in one of the 5 main languages needed at Aflatoun which are Arabic/French/English/Russian and Spanish.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Excellent communication skills of the translator team in Arabic/French/English/Russian/Spanish (written and verbal)
• Proven experience in translation works for Arabic/French/English/Russian/Spanish
• Proven proofreading skills for Arabic/French/English/Russian/Spanish
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in fields that are related to Translation/Interpretation
• Core knowledge of Aflatoun’s pedagogic approach and vision
• Access to the Internet

Hiring details

The company/translator will become a preferred vendor for translation work.

Due to the nature of Aflatoun’s work with children around the world, specific attention is drawn to Aflatoun’s Child Protection Policy and its Policy on the Protection of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA). These two policies are required to be signed by consultants and forms part of the consultancy contract. The applicant commits to zero tolerance toward sexual exploitation and abuse.

Reaction

If you are interested in working with Aflatoun International on translation work, please provide us with a cover letter and profile of the company as well as proof of your translation and proofreading skills. We encourage you to send past translation/proofreading evidence, however, and in addition, we are asking you to complete the following task:

Please translate and proofread one out of the four samples below into Arabic/French/English/Russian/Spanish depending on your expertise.

Sample 1 (Excerpt Child Protection Supplement)

1. Remind the group that every child has the right to be protected, to study, to have access to health services and other basic needs satisfied. This does not always happen, but adults around them should do everything they can to make sure the rights of children are provided.
2. Ask if they know what responsibilities are. After children give their feedback, try to put their words together into a definition of responsibility, for example a responsibility is something you should do (or a duty) such as treating others with respect, or doing your homework.
3. Do a quick brainstorm of examples of responsibilities. Ask children to mention some examples (possible answer: I have the responsibility of helping to clean my house). After the brainstorm, explain that for every right there is a responsibility. The same way that for the savings box we should have coins; for the right to education, children have the responsibility to study, do their homework, etc.
4. Tell them that you will distribute cards with a right written on it. They will also receive the same image but with nothing written on it, where they will have to write an example of a corresponding responsibility. They can also illustrate the responsibility if time allows. If children have difficulty in finding matching responsibilities you can help them. Please find some examples below:

• Right to education – responsibility to attend class, responsibility to do homework
• Right to be protected – responsibility to tell your family your whereabouts, responsibility not to talk to strangers
• Right to a clean environment – responsibility to recycle, responsibility to not throw garbage into nature
• Right to relax and play – responsibility to play without hurting your friends, responsibility to play without damaging the games equipment.

1. Give children time to finish and ask children to share what they created.

Sample 2 (Excerpt Digital Finance Supplement)

Who is this guide for?

FACILITATORS: The Digital Finance Supplement can be used in formal and non-formal education settings. Sessions give you a variety of tasks that generally involve hands-on activities and group tasks that you can adapt to your own context. There is no place for lecturing, sessions involve interactive learning methods and require the participants to engage in an inclusive manner. At the end of each session, participants reflect on the key messages of that day’s learnings. Links to Aflatoun original content are also given so that facilitators can easily connect Digital Finance topics to Aflatoun’s original SFE programme.

Activities pay close attention to promote inclusion and life skills education, such as cooperation. In that perspective, facilitators lead learning sessions in a patient, open-minded and non-violent way. They welcome learners’ questions and answers, they give them age and ability-based activities, they provide the support they need to achieve their goals. Facilitators promote cooperation between learners, relying on differences in ages and abilities (mixing children of different ages can be of great help). Furthermore, facilitators keep in mind being inclusive when involving, supporting and composing working groups, specifically with girl participants.

Sample 3 (Excerpt Gender-Responsive Digital Pedagogies)

Remote teaching takes place outside a traditional school classroom or an alternative learning centre. Unlike in-person learning, where teachers and learners are in the same space, remote learning does not need to occur with a teacher and students in the same physical space. The modalities used to advance learning remotely include high-tech options such as digital classrooms, video conferencing, apps, and no/low-tech options such as radio, television and printed material. Remote teaching can rely on or be some combination of self-guided, where learners work on their own, or teacher-guided, where teachers guide learners and parents/caregivers.

Regardless of the remote teaching modality you use, it is important to be conscious of your learners’ realities. If the remote teaching approach you use (modality, content, etc.) does not account for the intersection of their social and gender identities, the approach can be a barrier rather than an enabler for girls’ and boys’ learning.

For instance, if you plan to use digital technology in your remote teaching, bear in mind that girls and women are less likely than boys and men to own a phone, to use the Internet or social media, or to know how to safeguard information over digital media. Even when they have access to digital technology and the Internet, girls – especially adolescent girls – may have less time for online learning due to domestic and care responsibilities in their household.

Sample 4 (AflaYouth)

START: BORROWING MONEY: GOOD, BAD OR NEUTRAL? (30 minutes)

1. Ask participants to take out a pen and a piece of paper.
2. Explain that you will shortly call out a word. When they hear the word, immediately and without thinking, they should write down the first word that comes to mind.
3. As a practice, call out ‘green.’ Participants should immediately write something down. Nobody should sit thinking.
4. Listen to the different words everyone in the class wrote down when you called out ‘green.’

RUNNING DICTATION (30 minutes)

1. Put the participants into teams of three. Now count off each team: 1 – 2 – 3! Explain that all those students who are numbered 2 are the writers. Make sure all participants numbered 2 have pens or pencils.

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS OF BORROWED MONEY (15 minutes)

1. Tell the participants that you will read out some statements. For each statement, ask the participants to indicate whether they think it is true or false by moving to the right side of the classroom if they think it is true and to the left if they think it is false.
2. Read the statements below, and when participants have moved to the right or left, ask several from each side to explain their answers. Suggested answers are marked for you at the end of each statement.
3. Ask participants if they have any questions and answer them to clarify any issues. After each discussion, give participants time to reposition themselves before reading the next true/false statement. You can decide to use all of the statements mentioned or only a few. Use the statements most relevant to your group or create new ones if you feel this is more appropriate.

GOOD AND BAD LOANS (15 minutes)

1. Start off by explaining that borrowing money can be a positive experience as it can help participants to: start or expand a business; respond to an emergency in their family; and improve their living conditions sooner rather than later. When a loan helps them in these ways, it is usually a good loan. But taking a loan always carries the risk of not being able to repay. So, when the loan ends up costing them money, or forces them to default or go deeper into debt, it is a bad loan.
2. Place participants in pairs or groups of three. Instruct participants to listen to the following situations in which someone takes a loan, asking them to decide if each one is a good or a bad loan.
3. Read each scenario one at a time, allowing participants to discuss it with their partner and then make their answer. After each, quickly allow each pair/group to share their answer. You can keep score on a flipchart if you have several groups.
4. Ask just a few volunteers to explain their decisions on each situation.
5. After reading all the situations, ask the participants: To make sure that your loan will be a good loan that really helps you, what should you know before deciding to borrow?
6. Write down their responses on a new sheet of flip-chart paper. Make sure the following points regarding what they need to know before borrowing money are covered/discussed:
   • The amount of the loan payment, including interest.
   • How they will be able to repay the loan e.g. the sources of income or savings they have to
   • make the loan repayments.
   • When they will actually get the loan money. Will they receive the money before they need it or after?
   • If they are using the loan money to buy a tool or piece of equipment, will the object outlive the loan and continue earning them money?
   • Can they charge a price for the goods they have financed with a loan high enough to
   • both repay the loan and have some money left over?