Manitoba-based CanTalk Canada is offering free Ukrainian-language interpretation services to organizations across Manitoba and the rest of North America.
Maureen Mitchells, founder, president and CEO of CanTalk (Canada) Inc., says that any organization that's trying to help Ukrainian refugees with things, like finding a home, getting access to education, and finding out about what official or formal requirements are needed to settle into a new area, will be provided with 250 free minutes of immediate Ukrainian-language interpretation over the phone.
"CanTalk, with the immediate interpretation over the phone, sets up a toll-free number... All companies or organizations or even individuals, if they're sponsoring Ukrainian refugees, have to do is phone this 1-800 number. We take their basic information and when a call comes in through this number that we provide to them, a language facilitator...will... take their name or number because it'll already be registered and on that basis, we connect them to a Ukrainian interpreter/translator and then the conversation can proceed. It's a three-way conversation, but it always goes very smoothly," she adds.
Mitchells says that CanTalk is trying to help where they can and that she believes that now is not the time to take advantage of, what she calls, an unfolding human tragedy for monetary gain.
"We want other companies and organizations who are engaged in hiring Ukrainian refugees [to] help those individuals reach their full potential... It's quite difficult for any refugee to find a new home and to move... into an area that's totally foreign to them, so when you provide this immediacy of communicating in your own language, it removes that sting of feeling intimidated or distressed because they can't quite understand either the direction or information being shared," she adds.
She says that the language support doesn't necessarily stop after the free minutes have been used up and that as long as there is a need to support Ukrainian refugees, they want to be there to help.
"Though there's no absolute limit, there is a timeframe as to how long the program will be available and right now, we have it available for up to a year, but again this could change," she says.
Anyone interested in learning more about the Ukrainian-language services offered by CanTalk can call 1-833-215-0586 or visit their website for more information.
