The absence of Arabic math and science content has posed challenges for the Egyptian architecture student Nada Ramzi. Reading about the UAE’s Translation Challenge in Egypt’s newspapers, the 25-year-old felt the initiative came at just the right time.

From Egypt, Ramzi volunteered as a translator to provide Arabised science and math content for educational videos that will enrich the Madrasa e-learning platform. Her scientific background she gained form her architecture degree at the University of Alexandria combined with her current career in translation satisfied the requirements she needs to produce high-quality Arabised content.

Ramzi translated the texts she received from the Dubai-based Translation Challenge team.

“I applied to volunteer through the challenge’s official website when I read about the Challenge in the newspaper. The team responded to my application shortly afterwards and asked about my translation skills before I was officially accepted.”

Ramzi submitted her contributing pieces via mobile app that connects her with volunteers from around the Arab world. Each group has a supervisor who sets translation, design and voiceover assignments and tracks progress.

She believes that the Translation Challenge fills a critical knowledge gap in providing accessible high-quality educational content to Arab students.

“At university, I saw students shy away from maths and science subjects simply due to their limited English proficiency. Providing scientific Arabic content will encourage students to pursue science-based studies.”

Ramzi said working remotely from Egypt has been facilitated by the organized online submission process. She added, “The Challenge is from Arabs to Arabs. Calling on volunteers from across the Arab world exactly served this purpose,” she noted.