Interview with Han Kruyswijk (Mr.), Secretary of the Marijke Foundation (December 17, 2014)

Aujourd’hui, l’intiative PerMondo, (qui offre des traductions gratuites pour les associations sans but lucratif) a un entretien avec M. Han Kruyswijk.

1. What exactly is it what you are doing?

The Symptomatrix Team of the Marijke Foundation, we have developed a dedicated and scientifically based symptom checker, the Symptomatrix, for Early Recognition and Early Diagnosis of two Rare Diseases: Giant Cell Arteriitis (GCA) and Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR). The diseases are usually hard to recognize and to diagnose for family doctors and specialists.

Both diseases are rheumatic inflammations of the arteries in the head and in other parts of the body. In particular GCA may develop fatally if not recognized in an early stage.

The diseases are more common in women than in men by a ratio of 3:1 and more common in white than colored patients, aged appr. 45 years and over.

The Symptomatrix is published on the internet in five languages: Dutch, English, German, French and Spanish and is easily accessible for anyone, including family doctors and medical specialists.

2. How long have you been working for the Marijke Foundation and what do you like most about your work there?

The Marijke Foundation was initiated in May 2003 by my wife, and formally established in July 2003 by me after my wife Marijke died from GCA. She could have stayed alive and cured if GCA had been recognized and treated earlier, specialists said.

Since then, I have been the center of activities as the secretary of the small team of five professionals.
Trying to help to prevent patients around the world from fatal progression of GCA is the most appealing part in my work.

3. What do you think to what extend impacts your individual work and the work of Marijke Foundation in general the society?

Every year appr. 4 million patients around the world come to suffer from the diseases. Not only the diseases hit them hard but also treatment with steroids (prednisolon) because of the irreversible side effects. So, the main impact of our work is to help to prevent patients from all of this.

4. How have you heard about PerMondo?

Accidentally I came across PerMondo by searching the internet for possibilities for translation of our Spanish website preferably without costs as we are a charity with limited financial funds. In the PerMondo / Mondo Agit formula we found the right mixture of charity and commercial values.

5. For what did you need the translation(s)?

For translation of updated texts for the Spanish websites.

What would you tell the voluntary translators?

In particular on behalf of the patients that may benefit from the Symptomatrix I am very grateful for their voluntary support of our work.

This monograph provides an overview of the artistic work and life of Willi Baumeister (1889-1955). The book is available as an eBook, PDF and as a print-on-demand and published under the BY-NO-SA CC licence.

The English version was created in close cooperation between the Willi Baumeister Foundation and Mondo Agit in 2014. Free downloadable PDF versions of the German and English book are made available by the Foundation

• Free download: Willi Baumeister book in English

We’ve finally got the Mondo Agit blog going. Here, you will find articles on translation, culture, language, marketing, psychology, business and more.

The idea is to publish a post every 20 to 30 days, but we will see how we go.

As promised, you will find some articles already published for the time being. If you like them, subscribe and you will receive updates whenever we post something new. That way, you won’t miss anything and we will remind you by email when we publish a new entry!

If you have any feedback for us, don’t hesitate – you can leave a comment under the article or on our social networks.

Welcome!

The free translation initiative was launched in 2009 and, with Mondo Agit’s support, it has carried out some 200 free translation projects. In this way, huge numbers of web pages have been translated for a range of associations; as varied in their aims as their geographical location, making it possible for them to spread their message across the world.

Mondo Agit is pleased to be able to share its extensive knowledge in translation and website localisation, so that working with unusual or difficult files or formats, content managers like typo3, Joomla or Drupal, directly with html files, or adapting web pages for more language options, has been perfectly straightforward. At each stage, we have been able to find the simplest way around any challenge.

As you already know, PerMondo’s objective is to offer free translations to non-profit associations and initiatives who may need our help – relying on the collaboration of volunteer translators and sponsors, as well as, of course, the organisations themselves.

The measure would not affect the validity of the content or the motives of the documents themselves; it would simply be a case of getting rid of the tags attached to documents that prove their authenticity.  The aim of this would be to save in translation costs as well as to cut bureaucracy and processing times.

Twelve categories of public documents would be affected by the proposal, including those related to name, marriage or registered partnership, birth and adoption. Also proposed are optional, multilingual forms in all official EU languages.

Source (24.04.2013):
www.europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-355_en.htm

Our ability to consistently deliver a service that meets the needs of our clients has placed us amongst the most important interpretation agencies in Europe.

Interpretation in over 50 European cities!

What our clients say

We asked our clients to describe briefly their experience with us and this is what they said:

– Gabriele Baumann (Weidemann GmbH): Die Veranstaltung ist wirklich gut gelaufen und die Dolmetscher haben sehr gute Arbeit geleistet. Vor allem da es ja insgesamt ein sehr langer und anstrengender Tag war.
Mit der gesamten Abwicklung sind wir sehr zufrieden. Bei Gelegenheit werden wir sehr gerne wieder mit Ihnen zusammenarbeiten.

[Gabriele Baumann (Weidemann GmbH): The meeting went very well and the interpreters did a great job – especially taking into account that, all in all, it had been a long and tough day.
We are very satisfied with how the event went overall. If the opportunity arose, we would certainly be pleased to work with you again in the future]

–  Y.M.: Mme T. a été très satisfaite du travail de l’interprète et souhaite la remercier.

[Y.M.: Ms. T was very satisfied with the interpreter’s work and would like to thank her for it]

– Sue McCann (Essex County Council): Thank you for your email and I am happy to report that the interpreters were considered to be excellent.
The assistance, and support, offered in Italy by the interpreters was outstanding and I would have no hesitation requiring their services again.

– T.G.: The interpreter did a great job.

– Jaume González (MDF Maquinaria): Ha salido todo muy bien, no he tenido ningún problema, muchas gracias.

[Jaume González (MDF Maquinaria): Everything went very well; I didn’t have a single problem. Thanks a lot!]

– R.V.: Our CEO, L. says the interpreter was perfect, and she wishes to use her services again in future. If L. was impressed, she must be fantastic!

– Andreas Gregor (Consultronica, S.L.): Tanto el ponente L. W., como yo como organizador del evento nos hemos quedado muy contentos con el trabajo de Iván.
De hecho estuvimos comentando después del evento que sería bueno poder contar con él para futuros eventos, ya que se ha trabajado el vocabulario específico de nuestra industria.
Creo que ha sido bueno hacer una reunión preliminar y me ha gustado especialmente que viniera bien preparado a esta reunión.

[Andreas Gregor (Consultronica, S.L.): Both the speaker, and I as the organiser of the event were very happy with Iván’s work.
In fact, after the event we mentioned that it would be useful to be able to rely on him again for future events, seeing as though he is familiar with the terminology used in our industry. I think it was a good idea to have a preliminary meeting and I especially appreciated that he came well prepared.]

– A.A.: Gostaríamos de comentar que os serviços prestados pela Sra Y. foram muito apreciados e revelaram-se trazer mais-valia para as nossas conversações. Salientamos o elevado profissionalismo nas conversações, pontualidade no encontro e domínio na interpretação consecutiva.
Se mais oportunidades venham a surgir seguramente teremos todo o interesse em poder contar novamente com os serviços da Sra Y. através da Mondo Agit.

[A.A.: Ms. Y.’s service was much appreciated and brought extra value to our conversations. We would like to emphasise her high degree of professionalism during conversations, punctuality and expertise in consecutive translation. If further opportunities arose, we would be more than interested in working with Ms. Y again, through Mondo Agit.]

– Pablo Muñoz Nieto (Movimiento por la Paz): Muchas gracias por tu correo. La verdad es que quedamos muy contentos con el servicio; la interpretación fue muy buena y contribuyó en gran medid a que el coloquio fuera participativo e interesante para el público.

[Pablo Muñoz Nieto (Movimiento por la Paz): Many thanks for you email. We were truly very pleased with the service; the interpretation was very good and played an important part in making the discussion an active and interesting one for the audience.]

What do the interpreters say?

– N. Maina: Done interpreting, very pleasant cooperation

– P. Rodriguez: I recently worked for the Spanish branch as an interpreter. Communication was excellent. I received payment within days.

– A. González: I have worked with the Spanish branch as an interpreter since 2009. Projects are good, payment is always on time. Nice PMs. Many thanks.

– M. R.: Sarei molto interessata a continuare in la collaborazione
con voi

[I would be very interested in collaborating with you again in the future]

– J. Córdoba: Ha sido un placer trabajar con Mondo Agit…

[It has been a pleasure to work with Mondo Agit…]

Your professional partner

We have many more references, from both clients and interpreters (including the full names of referees). If you would like to see for yourself, or if you need a professional partner who you can trust for your interpretation, contact us.

They have recently been using the term “SEPA” a lot in the banking world. But what is it? And what does it consist of?

SEPA stands for “Single Euro Payments Area”. The SEPA makes it possible to pay, without using cash, from any account inside the area, under the same conditions as domestic payments.
The SEPA covers all Member States of the EU, in addition to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway and Switzerland.

To make direct debit payments and transfer money, from February 2014 all domestic transfers and transfers within the European Union will be performed using the same details. In other words, different banking details will no longer be used on invoices depending on who is going to pay them. Everyone will be able to use the same details, whether it is a domestic company or one that is within the European Union.

And, how can I find out about my new banking details?

If you have already been using international transfers (IBAN and BIC), you will simply have to use that number to receive domestic transfers as well. Otherwise, the simplest thing to do would be to contact your bank to ask them, or to look for the IBAN and BIC numbers on your bank statements.TheIBAN number always begins with the country code (DE, ES, FR, GB, IT, PT…), followed by a check digit and then your normal bank account number.

You will find Mondo Agit’s IBAN and BIC details on our invoices, and on the section relating to the company’s details.

New clients that wish to contract a translation or interpretation service can do so comfortably from their own home or workplace and without bank transfer or commission costs.

We offer the option to pay with credit or debit card through a Virtual Point of Sale Terminal (POS Terminal) for online shopping linked with our web page. This allows our clients to pay with the same security, speed and simplicity as with the traditional terminal but without moving.

Our payment gateway is integrated in the Redsys platform that supports international protocols Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode delivering the best security and pretection currently possible.

The method of payment through POS Terminal allows you to make payments with Visa, Visa electron, MasterCard, Maestro, Euro6000 and China Union Pay cards.
If you wish to learn more information about these methods of payment or make a quote petition, you can contact us through any of the usual ways.

Once again, with the aim of adapting ourselves to the continually changing circumstances of the market, Mondo Agit sets “low cost” prices for the escort or attendant service for fairs, visits and congresses.

Mondo Agit has decided to set this low cost tariff with the prospect of filling a niche in the market to which, until now, it had not devoted much attention. It is not only a case of satisfying the client’s needs that have not been met and taking advantage of a business opportunity, but also offering a good employment opportunity to innumerable young students in the last years of university study and those that have recently graduated, who find themselves facing difficulties entering the job market.

What does the service consist of?

The service is intended for cases where the client requires the service of a person who is capable of paying attention and translating orally in certain languages, with sufficient clarity and fluency for the client to be able to understand and make him or herself understood correctly.

In this type of interpreting, the interpreter accompanies the client (one or more people) to events such as fairs and cultural events, and also guided visits, visits to factories, city sightseeing, formal dinners, etc., where a language that the client does not speak is spoken. This service is also recommended for those cases in which the client needs a person who is capable of working in different languages at a post or stand for fairs and congresses.

Mondo Agit does not recommend the use of this service to those businesses or individuals that need interpreting services where even minor errors in the interpreting could be crucial for the success or failure of the respective meetings.

In these cases it is preferible to rely on our professional liason interpreting service, especially useful in important or difficult negotiations.

The Low Cost Escort/Attendant Service will be available for hiring from the month of February, always subject to the availability of the interpreter.

Among other things, this new Law includes the possibility of taking advantage of the special cash accounting scheme, which is also known in Spain as cash VAT.

For anyone who pays this tax and takes advantage of this scheme, it will mean that they no longer have to pay the Inland Revenue in advance for the VAT on the invoices they have issued to their clients until this has been collected, which unlike what happened in the past (VAT accrual basis), where they had to pay the VAT whether or not they had collected payment for the invoice.

What does this mean for European companies that work with Spanish companies that join this special scheme?

For anyone whose company has an intra-community VAT number, the invoices will still not include VAT.

And what if my company has a subsidiary in Spain?

For all companies based in Spain, when they contract services or buy products from companies that have taken advantage of the special cash accounting scheme, they will have to apply the cash basis to the payment of that invoice. This means that they cannot deduct the VAT until the invoice has been paid, and they must pay the output VAT at the time of accrual.
You can view the law that has been published in the Spanish Official State Gazette (BOE) at the following address (only in Spanish):
www.boe.es/boe/dias/2013/09/28/pdfs/BOE-A-2013-10074.pdf