Since the beginning of the year, the French team has worked on 325 projects — that is more than 1 project per day! It also represents more than 30 % of all projects the French team has ever received since September 2019, when Respond was first created!
This month is also a way for us to celebrate our Team’s 5th birthday — Yay!
As of today, the French team has had a fantastic year, with translation projects making up 73% of our workload. Consecutive interpreting remains significant, accounting for 19% of our annual projects.
It’s also truly exciting to see simultaneous interpreting gradually gaining traction, even if it’s still on the rise. A huge shout-out to our amazing simultaneous interpreters — your hard work and expertise are invaluable as we continue to expand and enhance our services!
This year has been a busy one for our team of 200+ linguists! We translated over 640 pages and more than 70,000 words. Meanwhile, our interpreters logged over 100 hours of interpreting and recorded about 20 hours of audio. It’s great to see what we could accomplish together in so few months!
2024 in Terms of Impact
The French team at Respond Crisis Translation is deeply involved in providing critical translations for refugees from all over the world who are fleeing escalating violence and political turmoil.
Many French-speaking countries are currently undergoing complex phases of instability, forcing thousands of individuals to seek asylum — this is particularly the case for Cameroon, Guinea, and Haiti, countries whose nationals we mainly work for.
This year, we have worked on 182 asylum-related cases as well as 169 immigration-related projects, which shows how deeply involved in the French-speaking countries the French Team is!
Nevertheless, we have also worked on multiple non-asylum-related projects, such as medical or mental health-related documents! The French Team has also recently started working on various academic and educational documents that cover a wide-range of topics!
2024 in Terms of Languages
Even if the French Team mainly works from English into French (and from French into English), we had to work with different languages, including Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian for three asylum seekers — the more we translate, the more we can learn about what happens worldwide, making us true change makers!
Let’s Focus on… Cameroon
The situation in Cameroon remains critical due to the ongoing Anglophone crisis, which began in 2016. Violent conflict between the government and separatist groups has forced thousands of civilians to flee. Many Cameroonian refugees face additional challenges in the asylum process because of language barriers. Accurate translation of their experiences is crucial: any miscommunication in their asylum applications could lead to their return to a dangerous environment where their lives are at risk.
Let’s Focus on… Guinea
As of 2024, the situation in Guinea is still challenging, with many people continuing to flee the aftermath of the 2021 military coup and ongoing political turmoil. Our team is actively translating important documents and providing interpretation services for Guineans seeking asylum. The need for precise translations remains urgent, as any misunderstanding about their experiences could lead to deportation back to dangerous situations. We're dedicated to helping these individuals find safety and stability in their new lives.
Acknowledgments
The work of the French Team at Respond Crisis Translation is essential in these cases. It’s not just about translating words — it’s about ensuring that the lived experiences of these refugees are accurately communicated, often in legal systems where a single misunderstanding could have life-altering consequences. This year, for asylum seekers from Cameroon, Colombia, Guinea, Russian, Ukraine, etc.
If we could make a difference, it is thanks to our Team’s collective work. Thank you, dearest French Team members.
With love and gratitude,
Danie, Dash, Aymeric & the Respond Crisis Translation Team.
