Newsletter January-June 2022
Dear Respond Community:
There is so much happening in the world that pulls us in many directions. One thing we know, the Respond community, has each other’s backs. Since the beginning of 2022 we’ve mobilized to help Haitians, Afghans, Ukrainians, and so many others.
Read on for highlights, team spotlights, and work with our partners, and more.
As always, you blow us away.
In this edition:
Our Impact!
January-June 2022 Highlights
A message from Uma Mirkhail, Respond’s Afghan Team Lead
Team Member Spotlights
Work With Our Partners
Inspiration
Sometimes we have to take a moment to reflect on the work our incredible global Respond team members have done to help asylum seekers & refugees navigate cruel, unjust, & racist immigration policies.
Since 2019, they have:
Translated 61 thousand pages
Done 990 minutes of interpretation
Translated 30 million words
Respond January-June 2022 Highlights:
Since the war began, on 2/24/22, The Russian/Ukraine team has translated:
Vital records for a Ukrainian woman and her 2-year-old daughter applying for asylum in the UK (individual request)
Vital records for a Ukrainian woman and her 5-year-old son seeking asylum (country unknown) (individual request)
Vital records for a Ukrainian man seeking asylum (country unknown) (individual request)
Vital records for a family of 4 seeking asylum in the UK (individual request)
Vital records, medical records for a young Ukrainian girl with leukemia seeking medical care in France (individual request)
A glossary of medical conditions for use by doctors at the border
Web content from the National Pediatric Hypnosis Training Institute for children, families, and relief workers impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Medical information resources from Baby Lifeline to help parents and young children who have fled Ukraine.
Respond Ukrainian team has began partnership with Frontida by translating medical forms to support Frontida's development of their system for Ukraine. Frontida Records is a nonprofit that offers custom digital applications for humanitarian organizations. We are looking forward to further work together to support Ukrainians fleeing from the Russian invasion
Afghan Team Updates:
Partner organizations from across the U.S., and Canada, have been reaching out to Respond to provide interpretation and translation support to their Afghan clients and community members. As always, Respond has answered the call. Pashto and Dari interpreters have been plugging into legal clinics, intake appointments, and more. Translators are also busy working on the hundred pages of documents required for these applications. The team is currently supporting over 5,000 people.
Our team’s talented Pashto and Dari interpreters/translators are Afghans who are either based in Afghanistan, Afghan refugees living abroad, or folks supporting family still living in Afghanistan. Respond is committed to providing just and dignified wages to all of them, but the demand is so high that we urgently need to fundraise to make this work (and paying for it) possible!
So far in 2022, we have paid translators based in Afghanistan over 12k USD out of pocket to work on cases that we took on for free. We cannot sustain this without the support of our amazing donors!
We are working with partner organizations to raise funds, and on April 6th Respond hosted an online fundraiser for the Afghan team. We are grateful to the incredible guest speakers and panelists who helped us raise $7000.
Respond's Pashto, Dari & Farsi teams are working on ongoing asylum intake clinics with Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors to interpret for asylum intakes & asylum applications for asylum seekers recently arrived in Tennessee.
Since March 2022, our Pashto, Dari & Farsi teams have provided 227 hours of interpretation for asylum seekers & their attorneys -- helping asylum seekers fill out their applications, translate their supporting documents, & communicate with their attorneys to build their cases.
Haitian Kreyòl Team Updates:
The Hatian Krèyol team are coordinating interviews with people who have been stuck on the Mexico side of the border with Oxfam America and Al Otro Lado.
The team translated and voice recorded Texas Civil Rights Project's giant video presentation on Know Your Rights, with revisions to reflect changes to MPP (Migrant Protection Protocols).
The French and Hatian Krèyol teams are translating a 12 page document for NYU Law School on women's rights and land grabs in Haiti.
Spanish Team Updates:
The Spanish team collaborated with Brown University & provided simultaneous interpretation for several events, including one with the author, Mariana Enriquez.
In 2022 the Spanish team has already translated 1280 pages, & transcribed & translated over 2 hours of interviews.
The Spanish team is in the process of building a proofreading team that will help with big projects over 100 pages. If you are interested in joining that team, please fill out the form linked, here.
The LFR (Less Frequently Requested Languages) team worked in 24 languages in Feb! People from all over the world are being heard, including indigenous languages. No matter where you are from and what language you speak, we’ve got you covered.
The Respond Q'eqchi team worked on the translation of flyers on parental topics & a letter with questions for a young immigrant mother who has a child, & is currently going through another pregnancy.
The West African Local Languages Team completed 24 hours of interpreting in Wolof-A national language of Senegal for the Migrant Center for Human Rights
22 different language teams are in the 7th round of translation updates to make a COVID-testing portal available in 22 languages at a 3rd grade reading level with Primary Health.
A Respond interpreter did 21 hours of Mongolian interpreting for an asylum case with RMIAN (Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network)
February 14th-18th, the Spanish Team PMs (Project Managers) Alonso, Magalí, Juan Camilo, Valentina and Romina and the always amazing Spanish team have translated 105 pages-in just that week!
The Respond Q'eqchi team worked on the translation of flyers on parental topics & a letter with questions for a young immigrant mother who has a child, & is currently going through another pregnancy.
Respond Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Marathi/Gujarati, Bengali, & Punjabi teams are working with She Speaks for the Change to make their content available in the major languages of India!
The Respond Arabic team is Kicking off a partnership with Frontida to translate medical records for people in refugee camps. The next project will be translating medical records for a project Frontida is doing with the Children of War Foundation.
The Respond Arabic team wrote an expert affidavit about the importance of a dialectical match interpreter for Sanctuaries for Families. Read more about this incredible and important project here.
An amazing interpreter from the French team supported one of our partner's Cameroonian clients who was being assisted with her asylum application and sensitive information. Without our wonderful interpreter, this client would not have been able to communicate with her attorneys!
3 amazing translators in the Portuguese team are working on the translation of a 17-page document with information on family separation at the border and how individuals can locate their family members.
Watch Uma Mirkhail, Respond’s Afghan Team Lead, share her experiences since the U.S. pulled out of the Afghanistan, here.
The Respond Crisis Translation team is comprised of language experts, technicians and marketers, professional interpreters, project managers, and curriculum designers who are passionate about the intersection of immigrant justice and language democracy.
Language barriers make every aspect of life impossible - from navigating the violence of the detention system and asylum process to getting out of situations of domestic violence, getting health care, understanding COVID procedures, getting therapy, communicating with your children’s teachers, reading report cards.
Meet 3 of Respond Crisis Translation’s amazing translators and interpreters, who have been working around the clock to dismantle language violence!
Valentina Callari Lewis
Project Manager Lead - Less Frequently Requested Languages
Valentina joined Respond as a volunteer in May 2021. Two months later she joined the Less Frequently Requested team as a PM. Val is pursuing a degree in Translation at University of Buenos Aires. Read more about Val, here.
Jamie Cho
Korean Team
Respond has allowed me to be a part of its passionate and dedicated team helping people from across the world. It's an honorable experience and community I'm proud to be a part of.. Read more about Jamie, here.
Lirong Shi
Mandarin Team Lead
Lirong is a graduate student at the University of Michigan where she is working towards her PhD in chemistry and public policy. Lirong he is a published author on policy and chemistry. Read more about Lirong, here.
“I wanted to share a story of one of the first clients RESPOND assisted with - "Bella". Bella had lost her husband and the family provider to a drunk driver, and suddenly found herself as a single mother caring for 4 children. Because she did not have legal status in the US, she was unable to find good paying work, and did not qualify for government assistance for her situation. RESPOND helped translate important documents for her to qualify for a U Visa, which allowed her to apply for protection as the victim of a crime. Bella was able to apply for therapy, financial assistance as the victim of a crime, and after filing for a U Visa, she was able to receive food assistance as well, putting her entire family in a much more stable position. The IRC is incredibly grateful for the hard work that is put in by the volunteers that make up RESPOND and for the ways you have helped make the legal system in the US accessible for the most vulnerable members of our community!” —Jonathan Fung-Director of Legal Services I Director de Servicios Legales/Immigration Resource Center of San Gabriel Valley I Centro de Recursos Inmigratorios del Valle San Gabriel
““Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world.””
