Don’t Translate It—Transform It

You can translate a trauma screening form, a consent document, or a resource flyer—but if the way it asks questions is rooted in Western individualism, legal fears, or clinical detachment, it can still feel foreign. Alienating. Even violent.

A Swahili version of a form still fails if it asks a newly arrived refugee to disclose sexual violence in a checkbox.
It still fails if it assumes they understand what “trauma history” means.
It still fails if the words are technically correct, but the tone is cold, the context is missing, and the cultural meaning is off.