Calling Dari and Pashto Speakers! Looking for Volunteer Translators

Our Volunteer Needs - Translation

Help us improve and expand our 'Darakht-e Danesh Library'. We are looking for bilingual Afghans, either living in Afghanistan or in the diaspora, with strong Dari and English skills; and/or Pashto and English skills. We have nearly 600 resources in the DD Library; however, less than 20% of those resources are in Dari and even fewer are in Pashto. Our resources fall into every subject of the Afghan school curriculum, but you don't necessarily need to have subject area expertise to take on a translation; though we welcome those with relevant subject backgrounds (math, science, languages, history, etc). Most resources are less than 5 pages long.

What is the Darakht-e Danesh Library?

'Darakht-e danesh' means "knowledge tree" in Dari, one of the official languages of Afghanistan. The Darakht-e Danesh Online Library for Educators is a repository of open educational resources for teachers, teacher trainers, school administrators, literacy workers and others involved in furthering education in Afghanistan. These open source resources include lesson plans, pedagogical tools, exercises, experiments, reading texts, work books, curricula and other resources for use in Afghan classrooms. The Library was created by Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan.ca).
These resources can be freely accessed by registered users, and we encourage users to add to the repository by uploading their own resources and expand this collection for the benefit of Afghanistan's teachers. The OER movement is fundamentally about sharing: please use the resources in the Library, but also considering contributing some of your own resources. It's easy to add documents to the Library. Just contact us if you would like to add content. We aim to bring together useful resources for educators into a single location, for easy access and broader use.

How is the Darakht-e Danesh Library Used?

Anyone with internet access can download and use the resources in the collection. Teacher educators can use the site to download resources and then distribute these in print in teacher training colleges, or to use in adapting their own local language resources. Teachers can browse the collection to download or print out resources for their classrooms or their own professional development. These resources can be freely copied and distributed.

Why is an online library needed?

The education system in Afghanistan is experiencing a rebirth. With millions of girls and boys back in school, new teacher colleges opening, and a reformed curriculum in use, there have been many changes since 2001. A National Education Strategy for Afghanistan guides these changes with more to come. Yet the challenges which remain are significant. Thirty years of war and an ongoing insurgency which has singled out teachers and girls' education for attack, makes this a difficult environment in which to teach. Afghan teachers contend with a daunting lack of resources. Most schools do not have libraries or science labs, many students go without textbooks, and teachers have little material provided to them to help cover the curriculum. The majority of in-service Afghan teachers have no formal teacher training, and many have no post-secondary education. Some teachers have not graduated from high school. In particular, it can be difficult to find quality resources for educators in Dari and Pashto. Even when such resources are available, books are expensive and teachers are not well paid. The Darakht-e Danesh Library aims to increase access to quality resources for Afghan educators, encourage teachers to consult a wide variety of resources in their practice, to use these tools to adapt their own, and to share their own resources with other teachers through this open-source collection. We believe that digitalization can make more out of less and nurtures teachers' independent learning.
 

Where can I access the Darakht-e Danesh Library?

Check us out at http://www.darakhtdanesh.org/
You must register in order to view the resources in the Library. New registrations are usually approved within 24 hours.
 

If I volunteer, how does it work?

You will receive a resource to translate, by email, from our coordinator in Kabul who tracks the translations, after we learn about your interests and any relevant subject expertise. She will double-check your translation for typos, style consistency, etc and then upload it to the database, where it can be accessed by all users. This is an unpaid volunteer role, however you will be "paid" with our eternal gratitude and with the feeling of having given a valuable gift to the teachers of Afghanistan. 

I can help. What should I do?

Please email Lauryn Oates at projectdirector@cw4wafghan.ca