LifeSIGNS calls for Translations help – encountering Self-Injury in Multi-cultural Britain

As we are going from strength to strength as a charity, it is time to expand in our scope and focus and so we are currently undergoing a project to help improve resources and increase awareness on self-injury in black and minority ethnic groups.

After reading many research reports on self-injury in people from a black and minority ethnic background, and being involved in radio discussions on the subject on the BBC Radio Asian Network and BBC Radio 1Extra, LifeSIGNS is spearheading a leading campaign to address equality and diversity in SI resources for people from a black and minority ethnic background.

We recognise that this group have a distinct set of factors that contribute to SI triggers, many of which are poorly identified or treated by general SI services. We also recognise the importance of the difficulties that different cultures may bring, especially for second generation ethnic minorities, and the lack of understanding and even recognition of SI that some of these cultures may have. Inevitably, there is a gap in the provision of SI services for black and ethnic minorities.

Therefore we are hoping to go towards filling this gap by translating some of our resources into at least ten different languages which will hopefully alleviate the language barrier that some individuals may face in getting the help and advice they need. However, to do this, we need the help of as many supporters as we can. We are looking to recruit volunteers who are confidently literate in:

Bangali
Punjabi
Gujerati
Urdu
Arabic
Classical Chinese
Somali
French
Polish
Tamil

Translators do not need to be native speakers, just confident and competent in a high level of knowledge of the language.

If you can help translate one or two short documents into one of the above languages, please contact Janet on Janet@lifesigns.org.uk