We are delighted to continue to encourage wildlife at our new Office. Below is a graph of both the large variety and ratio of birds we spot on a daily basis. The birds all eagerly compete for the food we provide and we find it very interesting to notice a natural hierarchy when the smaller birds are feeding. Once the Woodpecker arrives, all of the other birds sit back and wait for it to finish eating!

Apart from our wildlife project, we continue supporting CSR projects associated with environmental protection. It is important to support projects that improve the environment, protect communities or benefit the people, and we are proud to contribute to social and environmental causes by providing pro-bono translation work (i.e. work done for the public good without compensation). Our causes are selected every year from a range of projects participated by Monica Machado Translation Services’ Clients. If you are a current client and have a CSR project that you think should be considered for our 2021 CSR project, please contact us.

Continuing Supporting Wildlife 

In 2019 we continued supporting wildlife both in Portugal and the UK, with new bird houses and bird tables installed in popular areas of the office garden. In the UK, in particular, we developed our wildlife garden, promoting  wild plants to increase numbers of bees and other small insects around the office. Below are some random pictures of common visitors found around our newly refurbished office, such as nuthatch, woodpecker and blue tit and even a singing robin.

Contributing to Social Causes

This year we thought we would make an effort to look for a social project which was completely different.

What could be more different than supporting a group of retired individuals who get together each week to keep fit by playing Walking Football? For anyone not familiar, this ‘new’ sport has grown rapidly in popularity in the UK in a very short space of time. In essence, it is football without running or physical contact which was promoted to encourage men and women over 50 years of age to get more mobile and to help counter social isolation. With over 800 teams now registered, thousands of older men and women have weekly fun playing football in a social environment at a leisurely pace. Although it was originally aimed at players over 50, there are many over 65, and even some over 80!

The Team Tote Bags and Medical Kit Bags distributed by Monica Machado Translation Services feature Mónica Machado’s logo on the front and the Athletico Ross’s logo on the reverse side.

Mónica is pictured below making a presentation of Team Tote Bags to representatives of the local Walking Football team, Athletico Ross on Wye.

Continuing Supporting Wildlife and Contributing to Social Causes

For Mónica Machado, Company Social Responsibility is an integral part of the business and in 2018 there were a couple of well-known international projects provided as pro-bono under the CSR policy.

Mónica also continues to support wildlife both in Portugal and the UK.

The local bird community in her Portuguese small village is now thriving, with blue tits, great tits, black caps, jays, hoopoes, black birds and robins being common visitors all year round and with woodpeckers and eagles visiting the area regularly.

For 2019 efforts will continue both in Portugal and the UK, with new bird houses and bird tables to be installed in popular areas of the garden. In the UK, in particular, efforts will be around establishing a wildlife garden, where wild plants will be promoted to increase numbers of bees and other small insects. Below are some pictures taken around the garden: wildlife flowering plant, buzzard and a yet unidentified field mouse.

“Although we have domestic lawn around the main house, close to the office we have decided to only cut the grass once a year, therefore helping local wild plants to develop. Most of them flower too, and the different colours are very attractive in Summer. Apart from that, we have a persevering three-legged field mouse who gathered some family support over the past year. Well… supporting wildlife means not to be too picky on who may and may not choose to live around.”, Monica Machado.

Below are some pictures of bird specimens observed daily in Monica’s garden in Portugal: female blackcap, blue tit and great tit.

Monica Machado’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Project achieves global recognition in 2017!

For the past 4 years Monica Machado Translation Services has provided pro-bono translation services for a Project involved with the protection of endangered wildlife in Angola, West Africa and the Angolan Sable Antelope in particular.

It was a very proud moment when Manuel Sacaia, a humble shepherd, who has helped protect the Angolan Sable Antelope for almost half a century, was presented with the Wildlife Ranger award by Sir David Attenborough at the recent Tusk Conservation Awards held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on 30th November 2016, which was also attended by Prince William.

The Giant Sable Antelope is a critically endangered antelope with magnificent five‑foot (1.6 m) horns which has been captured by guerillas during Angola’s long civil war, attacked by armed poachers and caught in mantraps.

Manuel Sacaia receiving his prize from the hands of Sir David Attenborough for dedicating his life to the protection of the Giant Sable Antelope in Angola, West Africa.

“We are proud of having contributed to the protection of the Giant Sable Antelope in Angola through our CSR work.”, Monica Machado.

For more on Manuel Sacaia life and work protecting this species, watch a short video here.

Supporting Wildlife in Portugal and the UK

“In 2016 we will continue supporting wildlife. Last winter we have replaced the old nests at the site of our previous office in Portugal and the community of blue tits, great tits and robins is definitely  healthy and numerous. We expect a very good breeding season for 2016 and we will be posting new pictures here. In the UK we will be building new hotspots in our garden. These will consist of three attractive new bird houses of different sizes and two refurbished bird tables. More on this as we move forward.” Monica Machado

Contributing to Social Causes

As part of our CSR projects, in 2016 we continued providing special rates for social responsibility projects.

During the first quarter of 2016 our CSR project was for Portugal. It consisted in translating a complaint letter from English into Portuguese addressed to the Mafra council about the poor condition of the public toilets of the local market town.

In the 2nd and 3rd quarters we were highly involved in social responsibility projects, providing discounted rates for an NGO operating in Angola and pro-bono work for the United Nations at Guinea-Bissau. Monica Machado is a UN volunteer and the 4-day Guinea-Bissau project was part of this UN Volunteers scheme.

Our CSR causes are selected from a range of projects. If you are a current client and have a CSR project that you think should be considered for our next CSR project, please contact us.

Supporting Wildlife

Four years ago, when Monica Machado Translation Services were based in Portugal, a country where people hunt birds for caging, selling or cooking, the company started a small project in the gardens surrounding the office. This consisted in installing a bird house, feeders and nests which would hopefully attract birds to the area.

After some very good results, we now can regularly observe blue tits, great tits, robins, black birds, goldfinches, sparrows, white winged black tits, cuckoos and woodpeckers.

In the garden that now no longer is associated with our main office (as we moved to the UK a few years ago) we now have a resident community of blue tits and great tits which have bred on the site for the first time.

It is wonderful to see all these birds eating peanuts, seeds and fat balls, some of which we have to import since not all of this food is available in Portugal.

Although, no longer based in Portugal, we visit the site regularly and the local community will assist with this project for years to come. We will post some pictures of our feathery visitors here.

Meanwhile, some of the visitors observed are shown below:

Contributing to Social Causes

As part of our CSR projects, this year we provided special rates to an NGO operating in Angola. Under this scope we have translated a couple of documents at very competitive prices, therefore supporting important social causes.

The year is yet not finished so it is possible that we are invited to participate in other social projects like this one.

Most recently Monica Machado Translation Services supported a turtle conservation project in Angola. We translated two brochures on how to protect the turtles in Angola as a pro-bono project.

The capture of sea turtles and destruction of their nests, especially by fishermen along the Atlantic coast of Angola, has placed the species under threat of extinction.

Six out of seven varieties of sea turtles located around the world are endangered. Five of those types are found in Angolan waters and at least three lay their eggs along the Angolan Southern Atlantic coast.

Captured for food and with their shells prized for handicrafts, the turtles also face dangers from fishing nets, boat traffic and beach rubbish.

These brochures aim at explaining the importance of the turtles, the danger they face and what is being done in the country to revert the situation and protect the turtles.

“The largest of the sea turtles, the leatherback can reach over 1.8 m (6 ft) in length and 680 kg (1,500 lb) in weight. During their long migrations, leatherbacks regularly dive to depths greater than 1,000 m (3,281 ft) in search of gelatinous zooplankton to eat. The leatherback is rapidly declining in many areas of the world.”
In SWOT

In 2013, Monica Machado Translation Services supported a project in favour of the giant sable antelope, translating a story book for children on this Angolan species as a pro-bono project.

Also known in Portuguese as the palanca-negra-gigante, the giant sable antelope is a large, rare subspecies of sable antelope native and endemic to the region between the Cuango and Luando Rivers in Angola.

“There was a great degree of uncertainty regarding the number of animals that survived during the Angolan civil war. In January 2004, a group from the Centro de Estudos e Investigação Científica of the Catholic University of Angola, led by Dr. Pedro vaz Pinto, was able to obtain photographic evidence of one of the remaining herds from a series of trap cameras installed in the Cangandala National Park, south of Malanje. The giant sable antelope is the national symbol of Angola, and is held in a great regard by its people. This was perhaps one of the reasons the animals survived the long civil war. In African mythology, just like other antelopes, they symbolise vivacity, velocity, beauty and visual sharpness. The giant sable antelope is evaluated as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.”
In Wikipedia