[Indic-computing-users] South African language innovators win top African ICT award for bridging the digital divide

[Frederick N. <fr...@by...>]

SOUTH AFRICAN LANGUAGE INNOVATORS WIN TOP
AFRICAN ICT AWARD FOR BRIDGING THE DIGITAL
DIVIDE.

Translate.org.za has won the prestigious African ICT Achiever 2006
Award for bridging the digital divide
in Africa by breaking down the language barrier!
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."
Bailey added, "We hope this will lead to more localisation within
South Africa and across the continent as
we look forward to helping others to make similar achievements in
their countries."
Translate.org.za's work has included the translation of computer
software into the 11 official languages of
South Africa using locally based translators; and more recently the
creation of the first all-South African
language keyboard =96 a world first!
"This is the first African's-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. The result being that
Venda speakers are unable to type their own names correctly.
Therefore, one can only wonder how their names have been typed on
their birth certificates. Using
Translate.org.za's keyboard means Venda can for the first time be
typed accurately along with all the
other official languages including Afrikaans and to a lesser extent
Northern Sotho and Tswana.
Translate has also made spell checkers from Afrikaans all the way to
Zulu! This means people in South
Africa no longer have to suffer the indignity of their language being
underlined in red by an ignorant
teacher.
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 world-wide, Translate.org.za has
provided help and support to other
passionate people wanting to start similar initiatives for their
mother tongue. Now through the WordForge
Foundation, of which Translate.org.za is a founding partner, they
continue to help other both in Africa and
the rest of the world.

Supporters of Translate.org.za include Obsidian Systems, The
Shuttleworth Foundation, St James
Software, Hewlett-Packard South Africa, the Department of
Communication and the CSIR.

To arrange interviews or for further information contact:
Dwayne Bailey, Translate.org.za Founder & Director +27 (0) 83 443 7114
Janet Sebastian, Translate.org.za Media Liaison +27 (0) 82 584 0211
Photographs of Dwayne Bailey, his team of translators & programmers
and the African ICT Achievers
Award are available on request or visit
http://translate.org.za/content/view/1729/

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