My story has always been threaded through the idea of service. My grandfather signed the United Nations (UN) Charter in 1945 as Egypt’s Foreign Minister and later became a judge at the International Court of Justice. My father negotiated borders between Egypt and Israel and represented my country at the United Nations. That lineage was not a trophy to display. It was a responsibility that pushed me to show up, to do more than I had been given.

I was born in Diourbel, a town in central Senegal, about 200 kilometers from Dakar, Senegal. It is not a place that appears often in global conversations about development. Yet, it is where my understanding of dignity, solidarity, and agency was formed.

I was marked by loss early on in my life. I lost my father, who helped shape Senegal’s army, when I was barely two years old, and my mother when I was 27. But I never grew up feeling deprived. I grew up surrounded by people – family, neighbours and teachers  who believed that community is a form of wealth. Even in grief, there was love. Even in hardship, there was purpose.

On International Translation Day, we look beyond words. Translators and editors shaping volunteer stories across continents carry a greater responsibility: to ensure meaning survives the journey from one language to another.

Literal translation can preserve words while losing culture, emotion and intent. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can make translation faster, more accessible and far-reaching, but speed is not the same as understanding. Human oversight remains essential. The strongest approach is not AI replacing translators, but supporting them, while human judgment provides the context, cultural sensitivity and nuance technology may miss.

Ultimately, the craft lies in reshaping language without rewriting experience, because the most literal translation is not always the most faithful one.

"The most rewarding part of my work is knowing that what we build today will continue to protect people's health long after we're gone. That's what makes serving with WHO so meaningful,” says Seontae Kim, a Public Health Surveillance and Intelligence Officer in WHO Country office for Timor-Leste.

Seontae Kim is among the 14 UN Volunteers currently working as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) teams in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste. They contribute to programmes ranging from disease surveillance and emergency preparedness to mental health, communications, human resources, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and resource mobilization. Their work builds on a global partnership between WHO and UNV that dates back to 1973 and has created meaningful opportunities and delivered results for more than five decades.

“Nobody tells you that one of the hardest parts of international work isn't the workload. It's learning how to be comfortable in a foreign country. I think that's why this work means so much to me,” says Rose Lagrotte. “The limitations force you to be deliberate. To find other ways to communicate, to lean on colleagues, to earn a place at the table.”