Ukraine
THE CRISIS
In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The operation represented a major escalation in a decade of ongoing conflict between the two countries. In the two-plus years of full-blown war since then, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and over 10 million have been displaced. Millions more have sought refuge outside of Ukraine.
The war is in many ways a conflict over language.
“Insofar as the war in Ukraine is a war about anything, it is a war about language—a war whose ludicrous justification by Vladimir Putin is in part based on the utterly false claim that the Russian language, and its speakers, have been systematically repressed, to the point of genocide, by a merciless, fascist Ukrainian regime”
- The Sword and the Sandwich
In this war like all wars, language has become an additional border refugees must cross in order to reach safety. When Respond first intervened, thousands of people had gathered at the Ukraine-Poland border in fear and despair, some people waiting for three days to cross. They didn’t know where they were going and had fled their homes with only what they could carry. It was crucial to provide language support at that particular moment, when they were most vulnerable.
OUR INTERVENTIONS
In the days and weeks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Respond’s Eastern European and Central Asian Languages Team (previously, Ukrainian and Russian Team), exploded more than twenty-fold. A group of 20 hardworking linguists grew to over five hundred volunteers in order to meet the mounting need for Ukrainian interpretation and translation in asylum and related processes.
Alongside building out the network of support, Respond also immediately sent a translator from the team, Ada, to the Ukraine border to hand out leaflets with Respond’s information. These leaflets advertised that Respond was available and willing to help with language access needs for people fleeing the violence.
Since then, Respond has continued to provide direct service to Ukrainians and others impacted by the war; workforce development for Ukrainian refugee translators and interpreters; and systems change building toward a better future.
DIRECT SERVICE
On or after Feb 1, 2022
1,316 cases
27% refugee cases
30% asylum
924 pro bono
515 hours interpreted
1,797,551 words translated
# value pro bono (value minus paid)
$527,229 value
$65,932 invoiced
189,600 people served
Our team built capacity to support 25+ language combinations including Ukrainian and Russian into English, Polish, German, Chechen, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese as well as English into Tajik, Bosnian, Kazakh, Georgian, Armenian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian Sign Language, Czech, Crimean Tatar, and Belarusian.
Before the conflict broke out, cases from organizations were the vast majority of our work. Following the beginning of the war, individual clients grew to 30% of our caseload. This spurred Respond to translate our vital online resources into Ukrainian, creating the first emergency language portal accessible in the language.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
685 team members (linguists)/5 on leadership
52 countries
27 of jobs created
$44,476.20 paid out to linguists
Many members of our Eastern European and Central Asian Languages Team have been impacted or displaced by war themselves.
“Thanks to the income I earn through this work, I can survive and feed my family and cats. I am afraid day and night because of the air raids and the terrible news from the front. This work helps me survive.”
- Lydia Novinska, Respond translator based in Kyiv, Ukraine
SYSTEMS CHANGE
Respond’s Ukrainian translators and interpreters have been at the forefront of language justice work and advocacy. Respond has raised awareness about the weaponization of language as a central but under-appreciated facet of the war in Ukraine, and indeed all wars.
Many of our cases have also been in support of people from Russia who have had to flee due to their sexual identity and/or anti-war political activities.
“One of our team’s own translators, Alieksandr, fled from Belarus after being persecuted and detained for his anti-war and climate activism. We translated his documents ourselves, and he has won his asylum.”
–Tanya Grygoryeva, Team Lead
Across projects, much of Respond’s work has increased language access in service of rebuilding Ukrainian democracy and institutions decimated by the war. For example, we have translated the Cambridge entrance exam materials into Ukrainian, improved educational access for Ukraine’s children; a guide on rebuilding cities after shelling; and medical documents for Ukrainian refugees in other countries.
HIAS has been around since 1881 as a refugee-serving organization. We protect the most vulnerable refugees, helping them build new lives and reuniting them with their families in safety and freedom. We advocate for the protection of refugees and assure that displaced people are treated with the dignity they deserve….