Monica Machado’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project achieves global recognition!

Monica Machado’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project achieves global recognition!

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. 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 30^th 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.

For most of that time Sacaia received no pay. “I did it because the sable is a wonderful animal that exists only in Angola so I’m very proud of it,” he told Telegraph Travel through an interpreter. “I am a poor man but my country is wealthy because it has the sable, and my children will tell future generations that their father worked to protect it.”

More on Manuel Sacaia’s incredible work at http://tuskawards.com/Manuel-Sacaia/.

Manuel Sacaia (in the center) presented with the award by Sir David Attenborough (to the right).

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 know  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.

Monica Machado Translation Services provides translation services on environment.