inWhatLanguage helps improve the lives of orphan children in Haiti

For more than a year, inWhatLanguage has shown on many occasions its willingness to help people in need with many initiatives, such as the Rubber Ducky Derby, our investment in bilingual schools or our past Christmas Campaign. We feel extremely blessed to have a company that grows daily and where people are immensely capable and hard-working, and we are excited to use our growth as launch pad and an opportunity to make other’s lives also a little better through any means necessary.

So much so, that from now on we want to make charity initiatives a regular feature of our activity schedule! You can check up on our latest actions here, in the inWhatLanguage blog, of course, but you can also subscribe to our monthly inWhatLanguage Cares Newsletter and always be up to date. We are also open to suggestions and we hope to hear from you via Facebook, Twitter or Google+!

To kick things off, this month the iWL team went shopping. On the 23rd of March we went out and got all sorts of diverse stuff, from clothes to basic toiletries, in order to put it all in a big suitcase and send it to an orphanage in Haiti! Lots of kids there will be able to benefit from the things we got, and also the team had a great time – clearly, it’s a win-win situation.

“This shopping trip for the orphanage in Haiti was an incredible experience for us,” says iWL Office Manager Erin Millet. “The entire iWL core team was up for it. The shopping trip was very humble. It was pretty amazing to look at things that we take for granted, like shampoo, and realize that it is not a necessity for the kids in Haiti. They will use a bar of soap from their head down to their toes - shampoo is a luxury for them.”

The team entrusted the suitcase with all the purchased items to Liz, an experienced organizer of trade missions to Haiti. “The details Liz was able to share with us about the trade missions was exciting for us to hear,” Erin continues. “They teach the Haitian people how to build and provide water for themselves among other skills. That, to me, is the basis of service - providing knowledge instead of doing it for them.”

Communication, and the sharing of knowledge, is key for inWhatLanguage. That is, after all, the ultimate goal of a translation: to be able to communicate messages across borders, and share notions and ideas to make them universal. Hopefully, the idea of sharing wealth and helping those in need will also become universal little by little – and we plan to make our contribution as often as possible.

It is certainly a plus the fact that the iWL team not only goes out of its way to help others, but also has a really fun time during these occasions, according to Erin: “We went to lunch as a team and we were able to talk through our experience with one other and also get to know each other a little better. We, as a team, have such a wide variety of skills that work well together. It is so exciting to be part of the iWL family!”

Here are some pictures of the day:

The team, ready to go! From left to right: Erin Millet, Ty Palmer, Brian Palmer, Cody Broderick, Richard Bennett, Veronica Johnson, Maurice van Zutphen.	Discussing what to get... Front left to right: Erin Millet, Richard Bennett, Brian Palmer,Veronica Johnson, Ty Palmer and Maurice van Zutphen.
The shopping's done! Left to right: Erin Millet, Richard Bennett, Maurice van Zutphen, Vanessa Broderick, Cody Broderick, Veronica Johnson, Natalie Herrera, Brian Palmer and Ty Palmer.	Everything must be properly wrapped! From left to right, Richard Bennett, Maurice van Zutphen and Brian Palmer.
A suitcase put to good use! There are toothbrushes and sweets (an "oxymoron", according to our dear Office Manager Erin Millet), among many other things.	After the shopping trip, the team took advantage of the occasion to take a break and get to know each other better. From left to right: Brian Palmer, Vanessa Broderick, Erin Millet, Veronica Johnson, Ty Palmer, Richard Bennett and Maurice van Zutphen.