Update on the work of our Haitian Kreyol team

We wanted to share an update on the incredible work our Haitian Kreyol translators and Team Leads have been able to accomplish. Thank you to everyone who supported the mutual aid fund which has helped make all this work possible:

From our partners at Al Otro Lado:

Thanks to the amazing translators at Respond we have submitted a total of 53 humanitarian parole applications for Haitian families

We have had 5 extremely vulnerable Haitian families that received humanitarian parole and are already safely in the US, totaling 17 people total, 5 of whom were children. All of these families had severe medical issues for which they were unable to receive care for at the border, all of them experienced racism and discrimination for being Haitian refugees while in Mexico. Three of these families’ homes were destroyed during the recent earthquake in Haiti.

With the help of John through Respond, we have assisted (between September and December 2021) 1,400 Haitian asylum seekers who are stuck in Mexico with accessing humanitarian resources such as food, shelter and medical care.

With the assistance of Respond translators, we have been able to provide all of our border policy updates in Kreyol, educational videos for asylum seekers in Kreyol, hold know your rights presentations in Kreyol, and create guides for people to apply for their own work permit application (once in the US) without the assistance of an attorney in Kreyol.

From our partners at ILAP:

Thank you so much for all the work you’ve done for ILAP. As an organization based in Maine, finding reliable Haitian Creole interpretation and translation is particularly challenging, and the support you’ve extended to ILAP has been so helpful to our clients!

Here are some things that you all as volunteers helped ILAP and the Haitian community here in Maine with in 2021:

• Translated a legal advisory on the immigration consequences of using marijuana if you are a non-citizen. This is extremely important information that is now more widely available in our community.
• Translated website content for a website that is dedicated to helping migrant farm workers in Maine. We have many Haitians who come to Maine during the farming season, this is an amazing resource for them to have so much beneficial information in one place.
• Help for Farmworkers in Maine — Kreyòl Ayisyen
• Translated a guide on how to check in with ICE.
• This guide helps asylum seekers understand their immigration paperwork and helps guide them through having to check in with ICE. This guide helps people become more informed with a process that is very intimidating and stressful for new arrivals in the United States
• Translated a guide for how to change your address in immigration court.
• For asylum seekers with cases in immigration court, they have to update their new address with the court within 5 days of moving. This guide helps break down how to do this process and is SO helpful and useful to our clients seeking asylum. Changing an address with the court is vital because the court will send documents to the last known address, and it’s so important for our clients not to miss any important immigration documents that come in the mail.
• Interpreted for ILAP clients looking to gain Temporary Protected Status and asylum consults.
• Having skilled interpreters is extremely important during consults at ILAP. I’ve heard nothing but positive remarks from staff when you all have interpreted Haitian Creole for our clients.
• I would also like to point out that almost all of the translated materials listed above are available on our website and are “pro se”, meaning self-help materials. This means they are going to a much larger audience than just ILAP’s clients or the Haitian community in Maine. They are available for use to anyone in the U.S., so your translation work has had impact not just in Maine, but within the whole country. We are one of few organizations that provide self-help materials like this, so thank you for your vital contributions to the immigration community all across the country.

I would also like to point out that almost all of the translated materials listed above are available on our website and are “pro se”, meaning self-help materials. This means they are going to a much larger audience than just ILAP’s clients or the Haitian community in Maine. They are available for use to anyone in the U.S., so your translation work has had impact not just in Maine, but within the whole country. We are one of few organizations that provide self-help materials like this, so thank you for your vital contributions to the immigration community all across the country.

Here’s a link to ILAP’s website where you can see some of your work in action: ILAP Maine