Our Impact
“My son has won asylum. The happiness and gratitude I feel for this team are overflowing. Thank you for the solidarity and support in translating all of his documents and keeping us informed. This army of people with huge hearts made it possible for all of our papers to be ready on time. This is a new beginning for my son, an end to the nightmares, harassment, and threats. The beginning of his freedom. He and I will be eternally grateful.”
-Client, Respond Crisis Translation
Read testimony from some of our partners about the immense impact Respond has on their work:
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"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
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"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
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"Respond Crisis Translation has made it possible for us to expand our reach and make sure thousands of undocumented and students in mixed-status families understand their rights and access in our schools."
Viridiana Carrizales, Vanessa Luna & Lorena Tule-Romain, ImmSchools
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"We have been able to provide full translation packets to several asylum seekers since last December thanks to Respond. Recently, they have been key in cases where we needed indigenous language interpreters. It was the first time that we actually got to provide two legal consultations with K’iche’ interpreters.”
Andrés Flores, CLINIC
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"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.”
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
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"The last thing we want a client to worry about is telling their story in a language that isn’t the most comfortable for them. Respond has been able to deliver quality translations frequently used in court, providing an essential gateway to getting our clients the safety they need. Offering translation allows for a survivor to feel supported, heard, and cared for.”
Emily Lo Bue & Jessica Francois, Sanctuary for Families
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"We rely on Respond to help us translate documents that are in languages not spoken by our team like Tigrinya and Quechua. Respond is a trailblazer in this field."
Monica Whatley, Southern Poverty Law Center
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"We had a client who suffered severe persecution in Kazakhstan and only spoke Russian. Respond translated documents and research in Russian for the case. This was of immense help and not sure what would have happened if we did not find someone to assist us. This client later went on to win his asylum claim.”
Álvaro Gozález, Florence Immigrants and Refugee Rights Project
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"Thanks to the timely and expert translation of documents, we have been able to provide much-needed support to over 45 Nicaraguan nationals seeking asylum. Some of the people we have assisted have spent over 6-10 months in detention before their cases find resolution.”
Leticia Morales, Texas Nicaraguan Community
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“ASAP provides resources and urgent announcements about the asylum process to our more than 100,000 members, many of whom don’t have attorneys. Respond has been able to provide translations on short timelines, allowing us to get information to our members more quickly. Improving language access is essential to making the asylum system easier to navigate, and we’re grateful for the work Respond does in this space.”
Swapna Reddy & Liz Willis, Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP)
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"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 Renfroe , HIAS
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"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 Crisis Translation's support on this, our pro bono was able to communicate effectively with her client [...]. He was granted a low bond and released from detention...”
Erin Anderson, Al Otro Lado
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"We had a client who suffered severe persecution in Kazakhstan. After Respond translated documents and research in Russian for the case, this client won his asylum claim.”
Florence Immigrants and Refugee Rights Project
Creating income opportunities and talent-to-career pipelines for talented multilingual people
Read more about Respond’s everyday impact
OUR IMPACT NUMBERS SINCE SEPTEMBER 2019
+11,678
ASYLUM CASES
+473
JOBS CREATED THROUGH OUR TRANSLATION WORK
+44 THOUSAND
PAGES TRANSLATED
TO DATE
+4,623
INFORMATIONAL / RESOURCE PROJECTS
+$3,500,000
VALUE OF WORK DONE FOR FREE
+17,856,862
WORDS TRANSLATED
TO DATE
+800K
PEOPLE IMPACTED
+4,375
CLIENTS SERVED INDIVIDUALLY
+13,348
HOURS OF PHONE INTERPRETATION
+2,500
TRANSLATORS IN OUR NETWORK
+177
LANGUAGES
+543
ORGANIZATIONS WE PARTNER WITH