Happy new year!
I am so excited to start another year of working with the team again. We accomplished so much together in the last year and I am looking forward to sharing new opportunities with the team in the new year.
Victories!
In the past year, our team has been able to:
continue providing interpretation support in Russian, Tajik, Georgian, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek todozens of asylum seekers in ICE detention
translate documents into Russian for several young people from Gaza who have applied forscholarships in Russian-speaking countries
translate numerous educational materials into Tajik, Uzbek, Ukrainian, Russian, and Romanian
Provide over 10 hours of in-person interpretation for a human rights organization inArmenia
help an asylum win their case at the beginning of the new year!
Without the team linguists help, none of this would have been possible! I am so grateful to work with such an amazing team that enables us to continue this work!
Our Impact in 2024
668
Total Cases
419
Asylum cases
195
LGBTQ+ cases
169
Cases for individuals
1,557
Pages translated
622,745
Words translated
390
Hours of Interpretation
LARA
New Team Members
I've started volunteering for Respond last summer because I was looking for an internship... well, the internship is over but I still haven't left RTC! These months I've spent collaborating as a PM and as a linguist have taught me so much about fulfillment, solidarity and responsibility, particularly thanks to the wonderful Machaela!
Breaking the ice and start interpreting overthe phone was the most difficult part forme, and that is why I've also started aRussian Conversation Club, during which Ishare simulations of requests we mightreceive, to help linguists (myself included!)gain more confidence and feel more atease taking on new projects. My hope isthat this will help making a small differencein someone's life and change it for thebetter.
Linguists Spotlight
Our amazing Russian linguist, Anna Solodovnikova, has written a blog post! Feel free to read more here. She is a dedicated translator and interpreter on our team, and we feel so lucky to work with her!
Anna
I want to say thank you again to everyone who hasvolunteered their time, effort, and energy to support ourteam! We are so grateful for you, and your continued supportis what allows us to keep supporting refugees and asylumseekers with language access needs from across the region. Iappreciate each and every one of you and look forward tothe next year ahead of us!
Machaela Parkin
Eastern European + Central Asian Languages Lead
