The group of Bangsamoro Scholars who are studying in Turkey thanked the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) for the opportunity to help in serving communities in need as they were requested to act as translators during the implementation of the Qurbani Program 2018.

“We are happy and thankful when BDA invited us for the Qurban Program 2018. This is a chance for us to render service while on short vacation from schooling abroad”, Engr. Benamine Ubpon, taking doctors degree of  management and organizational in Yildirim Beta it University in Ankara, Turkey and President of the Moro International Students Association (MISA) stated.

For him, becoming a translator for Turkish brothers who came here in the Bangsamoro to monitor the program implementation is already an achievement.

A colleague named Zulkarnain Kudto, studying master in agricultural economy in Cukurova Universitesi shared that when you translate, you help connect people.

During the Qurban Program, their group bridged the communication gap between Turkish officials who were speaking in their own language and the locals who are the beneficiaries of the program.

“We told them, our Turkish brothers to speak to us first, like when they provide instruction during the distribution, so that we can relay the information to the communities who cannot understand them”, Zulkarnain said.

Another scholar who is Khalid Omar described that being a translator requires patience and that one should have enough information to entertain and provide the foreign group of the facts they may be interested about.

“We have to introduce to them the culture of the people in the community and about the place where we went to during the Qurban Program”, he stated.

Part of the curriculum in studying in Turkey for foreign students is to learn the Turkish language before proceeding to the intended course since subjects are being taught through the country’s national dialect.