Leamington-based charity appealing for translators to help spread information on coronavirus

A Leamington-based charity that provides vulnerable and disadvantaged communities with lessons for safer living is appealing for translators to help spread information about coronavirus.

Education Saves Lives, formerly Thare Machi Education, has been going for 20 years and aims to help vulnerable communities across the world by providing health information.

The charity creates interactive audio-visual lessons about some of the world’s biggest health and life threats, which are then recorded in local languages. Education Saves Lives then distributes the lessons online and on DVD so that communities can access the information.

Now the charity is currently looking for any residents in Warwickshire that could help them with their translating of information about the Covid-19 outbreak.

Rachel Butt, who has been director of Education Saves Lives for about six years, said: "Our team are all working from home, including our volunteers.

"As a health education charity we understand the importance of the right and wrong information at a time like this.

"We have taken the advice from the World Health Organisation and converted it into a lesson so that communities that don’t have the same access to information as we do in the UK.

"Our lessons on other topics are already used all over the world, particularly in Africa and Asia, and our users want to know about coronavirus, so we hope the lesson can help people stay safe.

"We’re looking to translate the lesson into as many languages as possible, we’ve got volunteers already working on around 26 different translations, so if any readers are able to help translate or record in their mother tongue (particularly African and Asian languages) please get in touch.

"We also want to get the lessons out to as many communities as possible.

"The lesson is online from our website, so if readers have contacts, again particularly in Africa and Asia, please pass on about this lesson to them."

As well as translators the team at the charity is also appealing for donations to help fund their work.

Rachel added: "We also need money to fund this and our wider work; so donations would be particularly welcome (you can donate via our website).

"We know that this is a challenging time for everyone, but it really is much more so for users of our lessons living in places where there is no running water, no soap, and so space to store food or to keep a safe distance from people who might be sick.

"There is huge concern about what could happen in these communities."

For more information about the charity or to donate go to: https://educationsaveslives.org