Earth Hero Volunteer Profile - Till Hassel
Earth Hero’s active and motivated users span most of the globe - covering 153 countries by the latest count - and that means they speak many languages. Translating all that content - including descriptions of nearly 200 actions - is no small task, and it requires the diligent work of a dedicated and ever-growing team of volunteers.
At the head of the translation team is Till Hassel, a 27-year-old from Stuttgart, Germany, who works as a project manager in an IT consultancy. Till began volunteering with Earth Hero in June 2022, first jumping in as a German language translator, and he was quickly swept up in the excitement surrounding the growth and development of the app.
“I really enjoy working with such a motivated and caring team,” he said. Under his leadership, that team has doubled from fewer than 10 translators to an active group of about 20. When Till started, the Earth Hero app was available in three languages - English, French and Japanese. The list of languages now also includes German, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hungarian, with Italian, Indonesian, and Traditional Chinese coming soon.
Till was also instrumental in getting Earth Hero up and running on Lokalise, a software localization tool used by many app developers. “When we began, we were using Google Sheets, but this upgrade has made a big difference,” he said. It helped to streamline the collaboration and implementation process, and facilitated the task of adding volunteers and languages.
Indeed, much of his volunteer effort is now focused on recruiting new volunteers and adding languages. Till says he communicates with the team in English, the lingua franca.
His work as the language team leader does take some time - as much as 15 hours on some weeks, a little as two on others. But he enjoys the flexibility, and he credits the work with Earth Hero with inspiring him to consider future work in the field of climate tech. “When I joined, I was not even thinking of something like that, but it evolved as I worked more with Earth Hero.”
When he’s not volunteering for Earth Hero or working at his day job, Till can often be found hiking or skiing in the beautiful mountains that are so close to his home. “I love being outdoors.” And he is proud to do what he can to help ensure that we can all continue to enjoy our planet.
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