Publicity materials
Local groups in Wales
Where possible, profile materials have been made bilingual. It is extremely
important that groups in Wales are ordering and using the bilingual materials,
even if their use of it, or the adapted templates are in English.
Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru explains why:
Just over 20% of the population of Wales speaks Welsh. The spread
is far from even with the figure rising to over 70% in some parts of north
and west Wales and falling to under 5% in the south east. Pretty much
all the people who do speak Welsh also speak English (though there are still
some for whom English is a slightly tricky second language) but bilingualism
is important to us for two main reasons:
1. As a matter of principle: as an organisation that believes
in sustainable development we should be celebrating and supporting a diversity
of cultures. The story of Welsh is quite incredible. Welsh is one
of the oldest languages in Europe and to have survived this long in a small
nation which has been politically, economically and socially subservient to
England for centuries is pretty incredible. To have done so in the face
of a deliberate English attempt to eradicate the language is astonishing. Not
only has Welsh survived so far, the numbers of people speaking it have grown;
its use by public authorities is protected by the Welsh Language Act and debates
are conducted in Welsh in the National Assembly for Wales . We should
be supporting that.
2. To appear credible as a community based organisation which believes
in taking people power from local to global we have to be able to provide
people with information in Welsh. There are a significant number of people
out there who will be put off supporting us if we appear to be an "English" organisation. As
well as turning away potential activists and financial supporters, we would
lose credibility with decision makers and opinion formers, many of whom are
Welsh speaking. For local groups, this would be much more acute in
Bangor than it would be in Chepstow, but it is best if bilingual materials
are available for all.
>> What resources are available?
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