Respond in Bloomberg: “The Nonprofit at the Border That Translates 170 Languages”
Bloomberg Businessweek describes how Respond has become a primary lifeline for many migrants and advocates at the U.S.-Mexico border, especially as private companies contracted by the U.S. government fail to provide adequate translators and interpreters.
“Respond now has staffers or volunteers in 87 countries, from Brazil to Egypt to Afghanistan, and has worked with almost 500 nonprofits—participating in online seminars for Russian asylum-seekers in Argentina, translating report cards for immigrant kids in US schools, interpreting for therapists treating torture survivors, plus hundreds of other jobs big and small. It also takes requests directly from migrants free of charge from all over the world, helping increase its total caseload by 30% this year, to more than 5,000.”
Our interventions are particularly critical for speakers of marginalized and indigenous languages, who are more likely to be denied asylum than those who speak English or Spanish, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
This work becomes ever-more pressing as the refugee crisis continues to mount at the U.S.-Mexico border, which is threatened to worsen while President Joe Biden considers drastic and inhumane border expulsion and detention laws and increased deportations.
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