Bridging the Language Divide

If you read Russian, you know that sentence says: "We must work together to protect the environment." If you don`t, you`re out of luck. Finding a common language is a tremendous challenge as E-LAW works with advocates in Eastern Europe.

Piotr Gorbunenko (left) works with Glenn Gillis, E-LAW U.S. Information Technology Manager

Support from the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is now helping E-LAW reach out to advocates in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, in languages they can understand.

Piotr Gorbunenko, President of the Biotica Ecological Society in Moldova, and Andriy Andrusevych of Ecopravo-Lviv in Ukraine, visited E-LAW U.S. this fall to begin work on a project to empower advocates in the west New Independent States (West NIS) to use the Internet to access and share environmental information.

Leading the project is Svitlana Kravchenko, President of Ecopravo-Lviv, joined by Elena Laevskaya, President of Ecopravo-Minsk in Belarus; E-LAW co-founder John Bonine, professor at the University of Oregon School of Law and Director of the University of Oregon-Lviv Partnership; and E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik.

Multilingual Networks

The project is already working with more than 20 public interest advocates and their non-profit organizations to build electronic networks in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, and link these national networks to a regional network and the E-LAW international network. Local experts are translating e-mail communication to and from five languages: Ukrainian, Moldovan-Romanian, Belarussian, Russian and English.

As the E-LAW network grows, requests for assistance and offers of help are increasingly posted in languages other than English. E-LAW U.S. staff and interns facilitate communication in English, Spanish, French and Indonesian, with nearly one quarter of current messages being posted in Spanish. Participation by Indonesian advocates has grown markedly since E-LAW U.S. began regular Indonesian translation last year.

Local translators based in Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus will now use Cyrillic character sets to bridge the language divide between advocates in the former Soviet Union and E-LAW advocates around the world.

West NIS Circuit Rider

Andriy Andrusevych trains staff at Ecopravo-Lviv, Ukraine (Photo: John Bonine)

E-LAW U.S. has equipped and trained advocates all over the world to use electronic communication tools. E-skills help advocates in more than 50 countries tap E-LAW`s electronic network and get the legal and scientific resources they need to protect the environment through law. The E-LAW network helps advocates draw on the experience of their colleagues — the world`s leading public interest attorneys — at no charge.

Technology "circuit riders" do much of the electronic capacity building. A Sri Lankan computer engineer, Shantha Fernando, serves as E-LAW Circuit Rider for South Asia while computer technician Miguel Peirano of Uruguay serves as Circuit Rider for Latin America.

Andriy joins the team as West NIS Circuit Rider. Based in Ukraine at Ecopravo-Lviv, Andriy will travel to the offices of environmental advocates in the region to assess needs, provide training, upgrade equipment and help organizations use electronic communication tools to protect the local environment.

E-Workshop

In April 2001, environmental advocates from the region will gather in the Ukraine for intensive, hands-on training. The workshop will cover web page design, web-searching, use of multiple Cyrillic fonts, e-mail skills, anti-virus protection, remote file transfer, Internet telephone connections, and more.

From the early days, when E-LAW brought the first e-mail to Mongolia, E-LAW has been a leader in using technology to help advocates around the world reach across borders for help and support. The West NIS project is a new initiative to erase language barriers and strengthen the worldwide community of public interest advocates fighting for a greener future.