Simultaneous interpreting: 10th International Consultation of Child Helplines
The world needs organisations like Child Helpline International. Child helplines around the world field more than 15 million calls, chats, texts, letters and emails from children and young people every year. Every child has the right to be heard and to receive support in times of crisis.
Child Helpline International needed simultaneous interpreting services for their consultation in Stockholm last autumn.
The event was co-organised by local Swedish organisation, Bris.
Bris – Children’s Rights in Society is a politically and religiously-independent children’s rights organisation that listens to, supports, and strengthens children and young adults’ rights in society. It was representatives from Bris that first approached us at Avison to provide the interpreting support for the conference. They were providing their own interpreters in Arabic, but needed our help with the French and Spanish team.
Working with our trusty technical partner, we provided three interpreting booths, one technician, eight interpreters, 150 headsets, transmitters, receivers, and masses of other equipment to make it possible for every one of the circa 150 delegates at this conference to comfortably follow the proceedings in their own language.
The IC 2022 meeting focused on the resilience of children and young people, especially with regard to their mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic (social distancing, school closures and other fundamental changes in society), and during extreme crises such as the Russo-Ukrainian War (the devastation and the massive displacement of children and young people as a result); how can child helplines further strengthen children’s resilience, and provide them with support to improve their situation in society?
With such important topics on the agenda, the interpreting and technical side of things need to run seamlessly. And conference interpreting at this level is a highly-tuned skill. With English as the room language, the pool of competence residing here in Sweden is limited. So once we had exhausted our local talent, we flew in other trusted simultaneous interpreters, with whom we often work, from France, Spain… and Malmö! And for three days, the teams took turns to simultaneously reproduce presentations, workshops and discussions in French and Spanish, and back into English. Including an introductory presentation from Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden, herself the founder of The World Childhood Foundation in 1999.
Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden at the 10th International Consultation of Child Helplines.
Helen Mason, Director of Operations at CHI; explains, “Our IC 2022 came at such a crucial time for the network, after not been able to meet face-face since 2018, and with the backdrop of a world in continuous crisis, we needed to see and hear each other, to offer support and solidarity and reinforce our family feeling. It is so important that we could rely on amazing suppliers like Avison. They really unpinned the success of our meeting; they were easy to collaborate with, solution focussed and always open to our needs. I highly recommend Avison!”
Do you need to reach a global marketplace? Or to make your conference inclusive? Avison Communication is an established Stockholm-based translation, interpreting and language agency working with over 50 languages. If you require translation, interpreting, language training, subtitling, or voiceover services, please get in contact with us here. We have been successfully providing these services for organisations and companies in Sweden and around Europe for over 18 years.
Image credits: interpreter, Kristin Cairns
