Washington, D.C. USA – 5 May 2016 – Special Olympics, the largest global sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities and The Rosetta Foundation, one of the world’s leading non-profit translation organizations, are pleased to announce the renewal of their long-term partnership for an additional three years until 2019. Since the beginning of the collaboration between The Rosetta Foundation and Special Olympics six years ago in 2010, barriers to information and resources have been removed for Special Olympics Programs in 170 countries across the world. The Trommons crowdsourcing platform, the largest non-profit translation space in the world, has enabled translation free of charge for Special Olympics documents and coaching guidelines across multiple languages. The generosity of The Rosetta Foundation volunteer translators has empowered millions of Special Olympics athletes, families, staff, volunteers, coaches and many more whose lives are touched by the work of Special Olympics.
Since the partnership began in 2010, a staggering 1.5 million words has been translated in 48 languages by translators at The Rosetta Foundation with a total value of €177,791 to Special Olympics. Last year alone, 276,126 words were translated into 38 languages with a monetary value of €36,448.
Acting CEO of Special Olympics International, Mary Davis: “The partnership between The Rosetta Foundation and Special Olympics is one that is valued and cherished by us across the entire Movement. The Rosetta Foundation volunteer translators are providing words of empowerment through their work. What they do for Special Olympics is truly life changing as we continue together to try to remove barriers to information and resources for people working to transform the lives of nearly 5 million Special Olympics athletes across the world. Until our partnership, we faced great challenges in supporting the development of Special Olympics across multiple languages. Important documents and resources containing practical and necessary information on coaching guidelines, skills sheets, articles, communications guidelines, fundraising tools and future policy plans need to be available in several languages for the mission of Special Olympics to succeed in transforming the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. The Rosetta Foundation shares our values of inclusion and equality and their expertise and generosity is contributing significantly to achieving our shared goals. On behalf of the entire Special Olympics global family I want to thank the President of The Rosetta Foundation Reinhard Schäler and his amazing team for their continued support and generosity. Their dedication to transforming the lives of people with intellectual disabilities through the translation service they provide free of charge to our Movement, is testament to their principles and ethos as an organization,” concludes Mary Davis.
CEO & Founder of The Rosetta Foundation, Reinhard Schäler: “When The Rosetta Foundation started to support the global reach of the life-changing work of Special Olympics for the first time in 2010 by providing them with access to free language services, it was also a key moment in the development of The Rosetta Foundation itself. The idea to break down the “access to language services barrier” by matching up the enthusiasm of language volunteers with the needs of NGOs became a reality. Through her beliefs in our vision, Mary Davis, Acting CEO of Special Olympics International, catapulted The Rosetta Foundation onto a trajectory that is now matching the skills of thousands of volunteer translators covering more than a 100 languages with the translation service requirements of hundreds of non-profit organizations in every corner of the world. The Trommons platform (www.trommons.org) has grown from a research idea at the University of Limerick (UL) and a project of the Science Foundation Ireland’s flagship Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) at UL, into the world’s largest translation space for NGOs. The amazing and awe-inspiring work of Special Olympics has always been very close to the heart of the language volunteers collaborating through Trommons. We at The Rosetta Foundation are very proud of our long-standing and close collaboration with Special Olympics and I would like thank Mary Davis, personally, on behalf of the staff of The Rosetta Foundation and the language volunteers for her commitment and trust in our work over the years. We are delighted to support the truly inspiring work of Special Olympics not just for another three years, but hopefully for many more years to come – in any language!” states Reinhard Schäler.
About Special Olympics:
Special Olympics is a global movement that unleashes the human spirit through the transformative power and joy of sports, every day around the world. We empower people with intellectual disabilities to become accepted and valued members of their communities, which leads to a more respectful and inclusive society for all. Using sports as the catalyst and programming around health and education, Special Olympics is fighting inactivity, injustice and intolerance. Founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Special Olympics movement has grown to more than 4.5 million athletes in 170 countries. With the support of more than 1.4 million coaches and volunteers, Special Olympics delivers 32 Olympic-type sports and more than 94,000 games and competitions throughout the year. Special Olympics is supported by individuals, foundations and partners, including the Christmas Records Trust, the Law Enforcement Torch Run® for Special Olympics, The Coca-Cola Company, The Walt Disney Company and ESPN, Microsoft, Lions Clubs International, Toys”R”Us, Mattel, P&G, Bank of America, Essilor Vision Foundation, the Golisano Foundation, Finish Line, and Safilo Group. Visit Special Olympics at www.specialolympics.org. Engage with us on: Twitter @specialolympics, fb.com/specialolympics, youtube.com/specialolympicshq, instagram.com/specialolympics and specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com.
About The Rosetta Foundation:
Since 2009, The Rosetta Foundation has worked to eradicate the knowledge gap based on linguistic discrimination with the support of friends and colleagues in the translation and localisation industries. They help to connect over 11,000 language volunteers with over 270 non-profit organisations that work with under-served communities. Together with these organisations, The Rosetta Foundation aims to create access to language services that were previously unavailable to linguistically marginalised communities. The work done by The Rosetta Foundation with volunteers and organisations through the Translation Commons (Trommons) allows these communities better access to knowledge and information around justice, education, healthcare, and economic wellbeing.
For further information: info@therosettafoundation.org +353 (0)86 785 1749
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