Doing Business with Heart

We are working to make our world a better place across four key domains.

Ensuring language access and language rights for all people

Enabling the safe deployment of innovation

Addressing the human effects of trauma and vicarious trauma

Eradicating human trafficking and the online sexual exploitation of children

"Every interaction is an invitation to uphold human dignity through language, through care, and through ethical innovation."

- Ludmila Golovine, MasterWord CEO

Language Access & Rights

Flagship Initiative - Mayan Languages Preservation Project

In collaboration with UNESCO’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022-2032), we finance and staff a community-led program that is revitalizing 11 Mayan languages spoken by more than 7 million people. Highlights include:

Stipends, laptops, and cloud infrastructure that allow 100+ Indigenous linguists and technologists to move from volunteer work to a professional production pipeline.
30 community-curated talking glossaries and an archive of oral histories, now fueling the first community-sourced nMT pilot for Q’eqchi’.
6 open-source Android and Windows keyboards delivering full orthographic support on devices used by the vast majority of Mayan speakers.
A forthcoming open-source Practical Roadmap to Digitization, coauthored and funded by MasterWord will help other under-resourced language communities replicate this success.

Ethical AI in Language Services

We cosponsor the SAFEAI Task Force, a multistakeholder body creating guardrails for artificial intelligence tools in interpreting and translation. Its Guidance for Automated Interpreting sets sociolinguistic and human rights criteria that technology vendors must meet before deployment. Practical checklists and training materials are freely available at safeaitf.org.

Why this matters: Both projects reinforce language as a human right and demonstrate how equitable technology can bridge communication gaps instead of widening them. These projects advance UN Sustainable Development Goals 4, 10, 16 and 17, all of which MasterWord supports as a member of the UN Global Compact.

Addressing Trauma & Vicarious Trauma

Language professionals frequently encounter and internalize distressing narratives.

MasterWord is a Vicarious Trauma-Informed Organization (VT-ORG), as designated by the US Department of Justice/Office of Minority Health. This means that we embed resources, tools, and mental health self-care practices into daily operations.
We offer free webinars on secondary trauma resilience, open to the global interpreting community, featuring clinical psychologists and survivor advocates. These resources reduce burnout and safeguard interpreter wellbeing, allowing them to serve vulnerable populations with sustained empathy.

Eradicating Human Trafficking & Online Child Exploitation

Our anti-trafficking work combines policy, technology, and education:

Adoption of NetClean ProActive across all corporate devices, blocking and reporting child sexual exploitation material.
Active partnership with organizations like RedM and United Against Human Trafficking Coalition and alignment with the UN Global Compact’s anti-trafficking principles.
Online, scenario-based training for employees, interpreters, and partners to spot and report trafficking indicators.

Together with frontline NGOs and like-minded businesses, we prohibit forced labor and human trafficking throughout our supply chain and aim to remove language barriers that traffickers exploit.

MasterWord is an active member and contributor to several major organizations and local initiatives working to increase awareness and prevention of human trafficking and sexual exploitation and to protect and support survivors.

How You Can Engage

By partnering with communities and experts worldwide, we translate empathy into concrete action. We preserve voices, protect rights, and ensure that technology serves humanity.

Language Professionals

Get involved with the Mayan Languages Preservation Project.

Researchers & Language Access Managers

Pilot AI ethics evaluations using SAFE AI checklists.

Corporate Allies

Underwrite interpreter wellness webinars or integrate NetClean ProActive across your operations.