Helping Refugees Communicate: Why the bother?

Refugee Rights News
Volume 1, Issue 2
December 2004

For thousands of refugees in Cairo, and elsewhere, accessing legal status and assistance means having to make their situations, and their needs, understandable to someone from another culture in a foreign language. Their ability to do this often rides on the services of one important, but overlooked, individual—their interpreter.

Given the crucial importance that these individuals play, it is perhaps surprising that in many contexts these interpreters are drawn from the same communities in exile and receive little or no training. Two years ago, Mr. Daniele Calvani, after working with refugee communities in Cairo for several months, and surprised at the low level of attention given to the important role that interpretation plays, founded the Cairo Community Interpreters Program (CCIP), as part of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program of the American University in Cairo.

The CCIP’s objective is to provide training and support to community interpreters. Over the past two years, the Program has graduated about 200 interpreters from its three month training program in a number of target languages, including Dinka, Amharic, Tigrinya, Kiswahili, Arabic, Juba Arabic, Fur, and Somali. This course develops not only the technical skills of the prospective interpreter, but also deals with ethical questions and provides a basic understanding of refugee law and procedures. After completing the course, interpreters are qualified to work with international organizations such as UNHCR and IOM, the embassies of resettlement countries, and legal assistance organizations such as Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA Egypt).

The CCIP is also developing resources which assist the interpreter in his or her task beyond the period of the course. Interpreters and tutors are working, for example, to develop glossaries of necessary terms in target languages. On November 15, the CCIP set out into new territory, launching a web-based newsletter. CCIP has now published two editions of the newsletter, which is intended to raise awareness of the activities of the CCIP and common issues that arise in interpreting for refugees, as well as developments in refugee policy in the region. The December issue includes reflections on what it means to be a community interpreter and on the psychological issues involved in interpreting, including discussion of secondary trauma. It also features an interview with expert Dr. David Wilemson.