Volunteer spotlight: Translating from Ukraine to the world

October 5, 2020

At any given moment, Kiva’s website hosts thousands of borrower profiles and loan requests from all corners of the globe. As a result, many of these profiles require translation and editing before they can be made visible to the public. This is where the Review and Translation Program (RTP) steps in.

RTP is composed of about 430 volunteers that review, translate and edit loans on a daily basis in order to see them fundraise on the Kiva site. These individuals typically review at least 16,000 loans per month. Their skills are so appreciated and in 2019 alone, they contributed to $141,536,950 in fully funded loans.

This month, we want to shine the spotlight on three individual volunteers: Ann, Alice and Katy. We are so incredibly grateful for these volunteers who dedicate a large portion of their time to empowering borrowers and creating a financially inclusive world. Without their contributions and the contributions of all RTP volunteers, our capacity to support Kiva borrowers would be severely limited.

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Ann Merrill
Kiva Volunteer of the Month, July 2020

“There are limited volunteer opportunities in Ukraine, and this particular opportunity utilized my skills.”



City: Kyiv, Ukraine
Language: Russian
Team: Russiva
Time with Kiva: 3 years, 3 months
Outstanding contributions to Kiva: A former member of a Kyiv-based United Nations project doing community development work in Chernobyl affected areas and current Russian-to-English translator, Ann has reviewed over 1,510 loans since 2017.



Alice Bretagne
Kiva Volunteer of the Month, August 2020

“Kiva is nice because you’re directly linked to people in the field.”



City: Lausanne, Switzerland
Language: English
Team: Only the Loanly
Time with Kiva: 3 years, 7 months
Outstanding contributions to Kiva: After reading Half the Sky and becoming a dedicated Kiva lender, Alice decided to become an RTP volunteer in 2017. She has since reviewed 2,145 loans.



Katy Robinson
Kiva Volunteer of the Month, September 2020

“I continue to volunteer because it’s an interesting way to find out about things going on in other parts of the world.”



Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
Language: Spanish-Portuguese
Team: Latino Linguists
Time with Kiva: 5 years
Outstanding contributions to Kiva: A current Spanish and Portuguese medical translator, Katy has reviewed 1,175 loans since 2015.




Want to be part of this amazing community of translators? Join us here.