'Open.Michigan' Translation Project: Case Study On Health Education For Uganda

Back in January, we launched our translation pilot for Open.Michigan, focusing on two video series for health education. We are thrilled to report that the translation activities are still going strong—57 volunteers to date, 53 videos that include 128 completed translations covering 11 languages, and expansion into our family medicine video series. We are amazed at the skill and dedication of our volunteer translators.

Ms. Evelyn Nabulya, an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Literature at Makerere University in Uganda, is one of our distinguished volunteers. Eve was in Michigan at the time for the African Presidential Scholars Program, along with Mr. Karfalah Johnson and others. We were absolutely delighted when Eve offered to translate some of the disaster management videos authored by the East Africa HEALTH Alliance into Luganda. Luganda (part of the Bantu family of languages) is spoken by over 5 million people in Uganda. The Luganda translations enable us to reach a much larger audience of health professionals and community organizers within Uganda. What’s more, there are very few open educational resources worldwide available in Luganda, so Eve’s contribution is especially impactful.