NaTakallam

Only 1% of more than 79.5 million refugees, gets formally resettled to countries in Europe or North America, given a work permit and a chance to restart their lives. Even when resettled, they face linguistic and cultural barriers to employment.

NaTakallam leverages technology to solve the challenge of millions of highly educated displaced persons with no access to an income. Refugees work as online tutors, teachers, cultural exchange instructors and translators, providing customers with high-quality language services that are often a lifeline to those delivering them.

Our market-based solution generates impact through: 

1. Financial income to displaced persons 

2. Purpose, dignity and human connection to displaced persons who’ve lost their social network due to fleeing

3. Fostering hope, building bridges and giving refugees a voice, beyond the media and political spheres

The topic of refugees exploded 6 years ago when the photo of 2-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s dead body on the Turkish shores went viral. Yet global displacement (Almost 79.5 million people) continues to rise, and the response from the most influential global actors continues to worsen. Besides conflict, the World Bank estimates another 150 million people more will become refugees due to Climate Change by 2050.

NaTakallam tackles the primary need of displaced communities -  to access an income. Millions of refugees have crossed borders yet remain stuck in limbo--in camps, border detention,  in host countries that don’t give them legal residency, thus remaining barred from the local economy with little hopes on the horizon. If they have a right to work once lucky enough to be resettled, refugees often face linguistic or cultural barriers in entering a new labor market, in addition to social isolation. NaTakallam is the first organization to leverage the gig economy and refugees’ linguistic assets to connect them to tutoring, cultural exchange and translation opportunities--all via the internet, providing them with income, a restored sense of dignity and purpose as well as soft skills that serve them in future job opportunities.  

Refugees and displaced persons can earn an income through one of NaTakallam's three revenue streams: language learning, translation services and curated language learning and cultural exchange programs in more than 200 schools and universities as well as organizations and companies worldwide. All of our services are operated on a commission-based model, split between NaTakallam and the displaced persons we serve. 

Once hired, conversation partners interact with users and NaTakallam staff via email, Skype and/or WhatsApp to connect and hold conversation sessions. Our model supports digital connectivity and enhances the mobility of displaced individuals. The global gig economy makes NaTakallam’s innovative model scalable.

Our algorithm ensures that users are matched with someone based on their specific schedule, level, and interests. The digital platform includes functions that enable users to indicate preferences and availability, view profiles, book sessions, make payments, and provide feedback. 

Refugees and displaced persons earn from $10 to $70/hour and NaTakallam actively monitors what each makes on a monthly basis to bring them as close as possible to the minimum monthly wage in their country of location. 

As a double-sided, social-impact born enterprise, NaTakallam serves two sides:

 1. Refugees/displaced persons/vulnerable communities who receive income as a result of delivering online language-related services, as well as support and soft skills critical to delivering these services. As a more indirect result, refugees feel a restored sense of dignity and purpose as well as often feel lifted out of isolation, especially during times of confinement, such as presently. 

 2. Paying clients who pay for high quality language learning/cultural exchange and translation services; split along three main segments: (a) individual users who get enriching and impactful language practice while directly contributing to a cause, (b) academics and their students who get similar benefits, but for teachers/professors, NaTakallam is a unique and powerful add on to their classroom to help bring empathy building and experiential learning to students, (c) organizational clients like many NGOs and Corporate clients who receive translation services that serve their CSR goals too. The long term impact is the creation of welcoming and inclusive societies.

Refugees are marginalized, but as local communities lose their jobs to coronavirus repercussions, as borders close and opportunities for resettlement shrink, refugees are met with even bleaker prospects.

For years, NaTakallam has piloted, innovated and scaled solutions that allow displaced communities to access an income and acquire financial security around the world, supporting them along their journeys. By focusing on remote freelance opportunities that are weaved into the needs of the US and European market, NaTakallam provides a resilient solution that has actually grown during the covid crisis. We also challenge the narrative around refugees and breakdown stereotypes.

NaTakallam aims to revolutionize the language industry and humanitarian sector—which is seen as inefficient—while changing the narrative around refugees and displaced people. Refugees are frequently seen as a burden rather than an asset. We give displaced people access to an income, regardless of their location, by connecting them to language-related opportunities online. Thus, we are leveraging existing, accessible, and user-friendly technology for the financial inclusion of marginalized people. Our objective is to create sustainable, gainful work opportunities that serve as a lifeline to displaced persons.

Unlike previous migration crises, the current crisis has given rise to the concept of “the connected refugee.” Many displaced persons have smartphones and remain digitally connected. Thus, by making use of popular mass communication applications, NaTakallam’s technology is both accessible and completely free for its beneficiaries. Once hired, conversation partners interact with users and NaTakallam staff via email, Skype and/or WhatsApp to connect and hold conversation sessions. Our model supports digital connectivity and enhances the mobility of displaced individuals. Ultimately, the global gig economy makes NaTakallam’s innovative model scalable.

Our platform uses proven video conferencing technologies such as Whatsapp, Zoom, Skype and Google Meet. These technologies are known for working in low connectivity areas thus ensuring that they are accessible to refugee. In addition, our platform uses proven technologies such as Stripe and Transferwise to ensure that our financial transactions are the most cost effective. 

NaTakallam's theory of change is that long term sustainable refugee integration depends on access to a living wage and financial security as a starting point. Our theory of change is that by providing refugees with a sustainable source of income, they will be able to integrate themselves within their host community, and hence create a sustainable solutions for themselves. 

NaTakallam has served more than 200 refugee households, totaling more than 800 individuals. In 5 years we aim to serve more than 2000 refugee households, impacting more than 8000 individuals. 

Our goals are to develop our programs to provide services in more languages so we can work with more refugee communities. In addition, we aim to reinforce our services to our clients, in order to ensure that the quality will create a long term sustainable source of income for refugees and the organization alike. 

Our goal is also to develop a platform which will include the latest pedagogical tools for a better user experience for our clients. 

Our main barrier at the moment is a technological barrier given our current platform. We also face some competition from much larger actors in the language learning space. 

We aim to overcome these barriers by first investing heavily on a new platform all while making sure that it is creating with the feedback of our current users ( clients and refugees) in mind. In addition , we believe that our social impact will differentiate us from our larger competitors. 

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NaTakallam’s mission is to provide a sustainable source of income to refugees who face tremendous challenges to reintegrate society and restart their lives. Natakallam started out of Lebanon, where Syrian refugees are not recognized as such, and do not have a right to work. NaTakallam’s vision is to empower refugees themselves to become resilient and independent actors of society, not having to rely on donations in the long run. We believe that economic independence is the first step to a sustainable integration of refugees and local communities, since reliance on grants and the inability to provide for oneself can unfortunately exacerbate tensions with local communities. As such, Natakallam’s mission is fully aligned with the Andan Foundation’s vision and objectives. 

NaTakallam has scaled its solution, working with more than 200 refugees around the world, using almost the same processes and technologies with which we started in 2015. However, in order to scale up significantly, NaTakallam needs to develop a new platform that will simultaneously improve the user experience of our clients, and facilitate the management of a larger pool of refugees working on the platform. This new platform will need to integrate payment and video conferencing features that are coherent with the specific needs of refugees who do not necessarily enjoy the same connectivity as most of us. As such, NaTakallam would invest the Andan Prize into a new platform, allowing refugees in places such as Zaatari Camp, Uganda and Costa Rica to connect and earn an income remotely and sustainably.