Our Impact

Quality language access support is a matter of life and death. We mobilize rapid response emergency language access support in 180+ languages, and our interventions have marked the difference between a positive or negative outcome in asylum cases, high stakes medical settings, and across countless other life-critical systems: 

  • "Respond’s Dari and Pashto interpreters donated over 36 hours to our LGBTQ Afghan asylum seeking clients this month. The care Respond took to provide Queer interpreters made all of the difference."

    -Immigration Equality

  • "I am truly in awe of not only the professionalism and accuracy our Respond interpreter Ralph brought to our work together, but also his heart, care, and flexibility. This unique combination was particularly appreciated given the level of violence my clients suffered. My client (from Haiti) immediately felt a rapport and trusted him to handle his story in his language.”

    -Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights San Francisco

  • "Respond is a trailblazer in this field. We rely on Respond to translate documents in languages like Tigrinya and Quechua. Last week an Arabic-speaking client was freed from detention after Respond translated an emergency document in under 24 hours."

    -SPLC, Southern Poverty Law Center

  • "Thanks to Respond’s Haitian Creole interpreters and translators, we submitted a total of 53 humanitarian parole applications and assisted 1,400 Haitian asylum seekers stuck in Mexico in accessing food and healthcare in the 2 months following the earthquake in Haiti."

    -Al Otro Lado

  • "The greatest challenge I face is sharing information in a timely manner among our staff, volunteers, and clients. This so often relies on translations happening quickly and in all of the languages our clients understand. Because of our prior inability to get timely translations in languages like Ukrainian and Dari, we’ve been unable to fully succeed, but because of the support we’ve received from Respond Crisis Translation, this is no longer a pain point in our programs."

    -SJ Renfro, HIAS

  • "We found a pro bono attorney to represent a detained Mauritian man at Adelanto Detention Center. The only hitch was that he spoke Pulaar. [...] Not knowing where to turn, I messaged Respond Crisis Translation for suggestions. Sure enough, they responded immediately with a contact for a Pulaar phone interpreter! With Respond’s support on this, our pro-bono attorney was able to communicate effectively with her client [...]. He was granted a low bond and released from detention..."

    -Erin Anderson, Al Otro Lado

  • "Working with Respond Crisis Translation has been revolutionary for us. Beyond traditional translation, they have also worked with us to innovate, rolling out a voicemail interpretation system to assist clients during the pandemic. They have often provided make-or-break assistance for asylum hearings where deportation is a potential death sentence, translating documents in as little as 1-3 days. [Our clients] ultimately won asylum and were reunited with their families.”

    -Julia Valero & Aida Farahani , RAICES

  • "My client advocated for himself and in part felt empowered to do so because he had all of the evidence he needed to make his case. He and his family are still safe and healthy in the US to this day. I have seen countless other asylum seekers who won their case after the judge requested specific evidence to back up a part of their story, and then were able to provide that evidence thanks to Respond. Respond’s translation services literally save lives."

    -Maddie Harrison, Al Otro Lado

We create talent-to-career pipelines and access to dignified wages for system-impacted multilingual people for whom this line of work is otherwise inaccessible:

  • "I have worked hard to recruit translators who were not able to make it out of Afghanistan, particularly women and queer folks who might not otherwise be able to work. In the past month alone, over 188 Afghans supported by my team were granted asylum. We pay all translators on our team for their critical, life-saving work. Our team members support on average 11 family members."

    -Uma Mirkhail, Afghan Languages Team Lead

  • "After the collapse of Afghanistan’s banks, international agencies gave up on paying Afghans. But Respond went the extra mile. I was contacted by Respond the same day the system collapsed. They asked me what I needed at that moment. They raised a fund for us translators and they have not abandoned us since. I am proud to be a Respond translator."

    -Dari/Pashto Translator

  • "After I was detained and deported, my Respond interpreters never abandoned me. They fundraised to cover therapy and training. Now I am training to be an interpreter in Kaqchikel. During one of my interpreting practices, I was asked to translate the word “freedom”. The closest translation I could think of is Nq'isamuj' y manq'i pahe tu'j which translates to: “luchar sin detenerse” - “to fight without being stopped”. And that is what I am doing."

    -Elisabeth, Kachiqel Interpreter

  • "I’m a woman, an immigrant, and a cancer survivor battling PTSD. Working with Respond has boosted my confidence a lot. I’ve come to know my worth as a working woman. I’m able to improve my health while finding a flexible work opportunity. It’s been a great, positive impact on my life overall."

    -Izzat Waseem, Urdu and Pakistani Punjabi Translator

  • "I was born in Somalia and raised in one of the largest refugee camps in Kenya. Working with Respond, I have an independent working schedule, good income. Translation is becoming a good career for me. I am also proud that through my work, I am helping immigrants in the United States with my talents, knowledge, and skills."

    -Farah Mohammed, Somali Translator

  • "I receive mental satisfaction when I help those who are in need of language translation, and also, I'm able to pay my bills from the income I'm receiving from translation jobs."

    -Demeke Akalu, Translator Oromo and Amharic Languages

  • "One of the most challenging cases I have worked on was when our team provided dozens of hours of interpreting for a Haitian asylum seeking mother whose baby had been ripped from her arms at the border. As a Haitian mother myself, there was no deeper gratification than the moment she won her asylum case."

    -JoAnn Gustave, Haitian Creole Team Translator

  • "Respond Crisis Translation is an amazing team. They take people by the hand, and help everyone in the community who is in need, especially refugees. It’s my pleasure and pride to be a part of this wonderful family."

    -Yasir Mojadidi, Translator Afghan Languages

Our impact numbers

Since September 2019

+19,392

Asylum cases translated

+51 thousand pages translated

+17,856,862 words translated

+13,348 hours of oral interpretation provided

+573

Family and life-sustaining jobs created

+2,526 translators recruited, vetted and trained

+600 organizations partnered with

+4,623 resources and tools translated and interpreted projects

+1M

People impacted

+4,375 clients served individually 1:1

Support provided in +180 languages

+$4,491,690 value of work provided free of charge

Language access is critical and underfunded

We have stepped in to provide these critical services for free to the organizations and individuals who need them most.

So far we have completed a value of + $3,500,000 USD worth of translation completely for free.

Other ways to help: