Tarjimly: An App Gives Refugees Access to Translators in Seconds

Being a refugee means there will be many challenges in day to day life, and adding a language barrier to the mix can make it nearly impossible to acclimate. Whether its speaking with aid workers or figuring out important records and documents, being able to effectively communicate often depends on having the ability to translate. However, translators can be difficult to come by and expensive to hire. Luckily, there is a nonprofit we’ve partnered with that fixes this problem by connecting refugees to bilingual individuals worldwide who can translate for them in real time.

Tarjimly is a virtual translation resource founded by MIT graduates and Muslim-Americans Atif Javed and Aziz Alghunaim. After hearing about the effects of Trump’s Muslim ban on their friends and families in January 2017, they decided to launch. Within just 24 hours, they received almost 1,000 translator signups speaking Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Pashto, French, and Urdu. The platform now has over 3,000 bilingual volunteers that currently help over 1,500 refugees and 1,000 aid workers in 16 languages (including variations in dialects).

How does it work?

Tarjimly operates through Facebook Messenger. When a refugee or aid worker is in need of someone to help translate something, they can simply send a message requesting help through the Tarjimly chatbot, which is able to then find them a match in an average of 60 seconds. Once the translator and refugee are connected, users can send text or voice messages, documents or images, or even make a phone or video call.

While the communication occurs in a live chat session, both sides are completely anonymous, allowing sensitive information to be shared without concern. Translators are rated at the end of the session, ensuring that Tarjimly keeps a reliable base of volunteers.

What gets translated?

Tarjimly’s goal is to focus on getting refugees help with imminent matters, thus most of its main topics relate to basic needs. Legal/asylum help constitutes 22% of the translation help requested by refugees and aid workers, followed by medical, camp/daily needs, education, employment, and counseling.

“You think about these hundreds and hundreds of people that are trying to have some sort of impact and help these refugees, but they literally can’t even talk to this population. We realized that the core users for us are actually the NGOs, service providers, and aid workers.” -Atif Javed

Currently, Tarjimly is urgently seeking Farsi, Urdu, Turkish, German, Italian, and Greek speakers, which you can claim via NeedsList. If you or someone you know speaks these languages, please share this with them! You can complete your profile in just 3 minutes and help whenever you’d like.