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Description
In this project we provide translation services to refugees and migrants staying in closed refugee centres in Poland (and outside them). Providing translation is essential in situations such as a medical appointment, a therapy session, a visit to an office or renting a flat. We want to help refugees to become independent and better integrated into Polish society. In this way, we support people staying in the refugee centres in Białystok, Dębak and Przemyśl, among others. At the same time, we provide employment for interpreters with migration experience and activate refugees professionally. Thanks to this project, we also help other organisations, which can outsource translations to people from our base and fully concentrate on their activities. The direct beneficiaries of our project are people with refugee experience. These are mainly people who speak only their mother tongue, who are staying in (or outside) refugee centres and who, due to armed conflict, human rights violations or dire economic circumstances, are seeking refuge in Poland. We also support people who have been in Poland for some time and have sufficient language skills to act as interpreters. The recipients of our activities are also those NGOs and institutions that otherwise would have to search for interpreters on their own.
Summary of project results
Our goal was to provide refugees in Poland with access to translation services, enabling them to communicate effectively and free of charge with specialists during their stays in centers for foreigners. The closed ones (Guarded Centers for Foreigners - subordinated to the Border Guard) and the open ones (e.g. Dębak or Lesznowola near Warsaw). In Poland, there are 6 closed centers and 10 open centers for foreigners applying for international protection. Our goal was to provide free translation assistance in situations requiring legal, psychological and intercultural assistantship translations. We responded to the increase in the number of refugees from countries speaking languages, among others: Arabic, Sorani, Dari, Pashto, Luganda and Tigrinya.
Thanks to the grant we received, we implemented the project, maintaining the employment of translators, which enabled us to serve a larger number of refugees. We covered the travel and translation costs, especially for people speaking less popular languages, from the grant. These activities contributed to the independence of refugee people and reduced uncertainty related to their legal situation in Poland. We have translated a total of 300 hours of psychological and therapeutic consultations. We have translated for over 40 beneficiaries from 21 countries. The beneficiaries came from Sudan, Syria, Morocco, Uganda, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Kurdistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Yemen, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Afghanistan, India, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Tajikistan.
Thanks to our work, exactly two people were released from closed centers (a person from Algeria and a person from Uganda). The effect of the grant implementation is the initiation of a certain procedure of cooperation between non-governmental organizations for the benefit of people staying in centers for foreigners and a certain type of specialization in closed centers. Thanks to the allocation of funds for translations, strategic activities in the so-called The three: humanitarian translator / lawyer / psychologist have become possible and their effect is to tighten cooperation between organizations. The beginning of cooperation inspired us to further professionalization, the result of which is a glossary (a dictionary of terms needed in specialized translations) created especially for translators of the Mova Association - a language without barriers. Thanks to the implementation of the project, we see that helping people staying in closed centers is an unattended topic and in the future we will look for funds to cover the costs of humanitarian translations.