Refugee Translation Project End of Year Campaign 2020
Providing free translation services to refugees seeking asylum in the New York metro area and beyond
Leader
Damian Harris-Hernandez
Location
Statue of Liberty New York, NY 12754
About the project
Our end of year campaign supports an ongoing process to build a reserve fund to pay our translators, some of whom are refugees themselves, and supports us to strengthen our organization, as we build collaboratively with immigration service providers to meet an unprecedented scope of need.
The Refugee Translation Project provides free professional translation support to refugees seeking asylum in the New York metro area and beyond. Our clients have fled war and persecution in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Cameroon, Eritrea, Sudan, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many of them are in need of medical attention, including small children. All of them deserve to live in peace and safety. Unfortunately, most of these people have lost almost everything they own and cannot afford to pay for the speedy translation of important documents such as medical records, identity papers, personal statements, and other documents necessary for their cases for asylum and relocation. The Refugee Translation Project relieves this financial burden by providing free, professional translation services so that refugees can focus their limited resources on making a new home.
The Steps
The funds raised during our end of year campaign will pay for translations and support our efforts to secure foundation funding and form new partnerships with refugee support organizations and immigration service providers to expand the scope of our impact. We will carry out these objectives simultaneously.
We will continue providing translations and add more languages in order to accomodate needs as they arise.
We will apply to foundations for large grants to secure sustainable funding.
We will reach out to refugee support organizations and immigration service providers to expand our network and extend the reach of our impact.
Why we‘re doing it
The outbreak of Covid-19 has exacerbated the harm to refugees caused by the anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration. Immigration court backlogs have nearly doubled in the last four years, now totaling 1.2 million. Immigration courts are beginning to reopen at the same time as Biden has pledged to raise the refugee ceiling from 15,000 to 125,000. 2021 will see a sharp uptick in the urgent demand for accurate translated documents, without which refugees cannot share their stories to the court that will decide whether they can stay in the country. We are actively growing our capacity to meet this critical need and we invite you to join us in the process.