The number of people around the world who for various reasons are forced to leave their countries of residence is increasing rapidly. According to the United Nations International Migration report, last year, over 250 million people were forced to emigrate from their countries for a variety of reasons.
Turkey is one of the countries standing at the center of these global developments and is intensely and directly impacted by them. According to the data provided by the United Nations reports and the Directorate General of Migration, Turkey currently hosts close to 5 million migrants. The number of migrants in the country has reached 6 percent of total population of Turkey.
This situation carries with it a series of vital needs. One of the most important of these is communication. Migrants feel the need to form channels of communication at every level with the societies which they came. In situations in which the opportunities to communicate provided for by a shared language do not exist, this need for communication is met through the assistance of “Community Interpreters,” some of whom have stepped forth to volunteer, while others work professionally within an organization. Whenever migrants utilize health services, receive social services, or conduct their legal/bureaucratic affairs, they always require the assistance of a community interpreter, whose language services bridge the gaps in communication.
In short, community interpreters function as a crucial communication bridge in terms of meeting the basic needs of migrants, improving their quality of life and expediting their integration processes.
However, this situation does not imply that the community interpreter mechanism operates seamlessly, provided a large number of community interpreters only have very limited education and experience in this field. This situation can lead community interpreters, who work in very difficult conditions and are responding to a tremendously vital need, to be periodically confronted with very significant problems in their fieldwork.
The beraberce Association, moving forward from its “together, life is beautiful” philosophy, works towards increasing the opportunities for living together and through its “Community Interpreter Training Program,” the beraberce Association attempts to contribute to overcoming the problems experienced in this field. Furthermore, it aims to emphasize its commitment to the right for people to speak their mother-tongues and supports people’s efforts to protect their own languages.
This training program, whose content was developed by the beraberce Association itself and in light of the community interpreting work and experiences collected from various countries across the world, aims to achieve the following goals: to provide people who work in this field the basic information and skills required for community interpreting; develop their interpreting abilities; ensure their understanding and application of the professional ethical principles; assist the community interpreters in developing problem solving mechanisms while bearing in mind the most frequently encountered problems; and facilitate the sharing of experiences so that the community interpreters can learn from one another.
The beraberce Association strives to research the possibility of job opportunities for certified community interpreters through disseminating this project throughout Turkey’s other provinces and municipalities; as well as to develop this model to incorporate specialization areas, such as health, law and education.
The news article on the Community Interpreter Training in 2017: http://www.beraberhaber.com/egitim/halk-tercumanlari-egitimi-yayginlastirilmak-isteniyor-h5.html
The news article on the Community Interpreter Training in 2018: http://www.beraberhaber.com/egitim/2018-halk-tercumanligi-egitim-programi-tamamlandi-katilim-h199.html
Supporters:
DVV International
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
