Young Translators Program

Young Translators is an initiative from EETHAL Foundation in which teenagers of Tamil origin across North America work with adult volunteers to translate high quality educational and informational content from English to Tamil targeting youth in rural Tamil Nadu. Currently we translate TED videos and StoryWeaver stories into Tamil.

Why Do We Do This?

In underprivileged rural areas around the world, there are talented students who lack access to quality educational content. Language barriers prevent many students in Tamil Nadu from accessing world-class resources like Khan Academy, TED talks, and other learning materials.

By making this content available in their native language, we enable those students to empower themselves to success. Our Tamil-speaking teen volunteers — first-generation immigrants with family roots in Tamil Nadu — can help their peers in India right from their homes, while developing valuable collaboration and leadership skills.

• Bridges language barriers to quality educational content
• Develops leadership and collaboration skills through community service
• Preserves Tamil language and culture for future generations
• Earns Presidential Volunteer Service Awards (PVSA)
• Builds connections between Tamil youth in North America and students in rural Tamil Nadu

What We Have Done

We have grown from a small team of four students in the beginning of 2020 to about 100 teen and adult volunteers now (2023). Working with Vetrivel Founation, we translated 3rd grade through 7th grade Mathematics exercise materials in Khan Academy to Tamil. Since then we have moved on to other projects such as translating StoryWeaver stories, TED video subtitling as well as creating educational content for other NGOs such as Kalvi40.

Our program has grown significantly since its founding:

• Started in early 2020 with just 4 students and has grown to approximately 100 teen and adult volunteers by 2023
• Collaborated with Vetrivel Foundation to translate Khan Academy Mathematics materials for grades 3-7 into Tamil
• Expanded to multiple content types including StoryWeaver stories, TED video subtitling, and content creation for organizations like Kalvi40

How You Can Help

We are looking for volunteers of all ages and Tamil proficiency levels to help with our mission. There are many ways to contribute:

• Participating in online translation sessions
• Identifying and correcting translation errors
• Improving translation quality

For teenagers: Join our assisted weekly online translation sessions. Limited Tamil proficiency is perfectly acceptable — we will help you learn and grow! See our Students FAQ for details.

For adults: Lead translation sessions, perform quality assurance, and help improve translations. See our Adults FAQ for more information.