Case: NGO

The challenge?

A large healthcare NGO tasked Home Office with the urgent translation of a 750-page report on the incidence of tropical diseases on the African continent, with an inventory for every African country. Moreover, the pattern of every disease had to be described in detailed medical terms. And the entire document had to be translated in 20 business days, from English into French, which only complicated matters even more.

How did Home Office solve this?

Our biggest challenge was not finding experienced medical translators with an excellent knowledge of French and English. Finding such translators within a very short time frame, with availability to take on this assignment and with a lot of experience in a very specialised area of medicine was a different cup of tea however. Given the sensitive nature of the report, the customer expected a most accurate translation from Home Office. To meet the very tight deadline, we decided to work with our own translators, as well as freelancers and a translation agency based in France.

We decided to ask a translator to establish a terminology list before commencing the translation to guarantee the uniformity of the texts, which would be translated by five different translators. The same translator, who only translated a small batch of the report, was also tasked with revising the final document. It was our way of guaranteeing the greatest possible uniformity, in terms of content and style. This translator also coordinated the translation process.

The outcome?

Given the project’s scope and the very tight deadline, we delivered the project in various phases. After a first, partial delivery, we met with the NGO to discuss the quality of the translation, get feedback and find out more about other specific preferences. Thanks to this streamlined approach, Home Office was even able to deliver the translation two days before the agreed deadline. Obviously, the customer was very satisfied.