Volunteer spotlight: “I like the way we help people help themselves”

All over the world, Review and Translation Program (RTP) volunteers offer their time and skills to ensure that the thousands of loans that come in from Kiva’s partners are edited and translated from our 5 key languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian. In the past 3 months alone, RTP volunteers have reviewed 57,199 loans, averaging over 19,000 loans per month. They enjoy being involved in the process from reviewing the original loans to seeing them fundraise on Kiva.

This month we celebrate 3 of our incredible volunteers who work in 4 different languages - Audhild, Brigette and Kristin. Motivated by the opportunity to alleviate poverty and a desire to keep up their editing and translating skills, we are thankful for their dedication and contributions to Kiva!

Audhild Andersen Randa

Kiva Volunteer of the Month, July 2017

“I like the way we help people help themselves, and these entrepreneurs - they’re quite innovative, exciting people.”

City: Oslo, Norway

Language: Russian

Team: Russiva

Time with Kiva: 6 years

Outstanding Contributions to Kiva: Audhild is a lender as well as a translator, and her favorite borrowers to lend to are those who are financing solar power initiatives. She volunteers in order to keep up her Russian language skills and has translated over 2,000 loans from Russian to English!

Brigette Walters

Kiva Volunteer of the Month, August 2017

“Bringing opportunities for education to places where it might not be so easy to go to school is important to me.”

City: Old Fort, North Carolina

Language: English

Team: The Loan Rangers

Time with Kiva: 8 years, 5 months

Outstanding Contributions to Kiva: Passionate about equal opportunity and access to education, Brigette loves editing loans from Pakistan as a lot of their loans are to improve schools. Her editing skills have helped over 7,700 borrowers achieve their fundraising goals on Kiva!

Kristin Siracusa Fisher

Kiva Volunteer of the Month, September 2017

“I like to be a part of an effort that supports people as they make their own way. Kiva does that.”

City: Austin, TX

Language: Spanish, Portuguese

Team: Latino Linguists

Time with Kiva: 2 years, 11 months

Outstanding Contributions to Kiva: Kristin loves translating as it provides a way to learn about new places and the people who live there. As a translator of both Spanish and Portuguese, Kristin has translated over 800 loans on Kiva!

Want to be part of this amazing community of editors and translators? Join us here.