ARABIC CHANGES LIVES OF REFUGEES
NaTakallam is an online teaching platform employing Syrian refugees to teach Arabic learners around the world, and help displaced teachers to resettle, Zainab Sultan, Foreign Correspondent, reports
Syrians teach on Skype from round the world, thanks to New York company that pairs them with students,
NEW YORK // Syrian refugee Noor Al Kasseer uses Skype to teach Arabic to students across the world, earning money that helps her to set up a new life in Italy. While many may think of Syrian refugees as desperate, helpless and extremely poor, Ms Al Kasser is among a handful changing that perception with the help of NaTakallam, a New York online platform that pairs them with Arabic learners around the world.
Unlike traditional forms of aid, NaTakallam aims to provide sustainable livelihoods that are also humane and intellectually stimulating to displaced Syrians unable to find work in Lebanon or other countries to which they have fled, said Aline Sara, a founder of NaTakallam, which means “We speak in Arabic”.
“Displaced Syrians in Lebanon don’t have a very promising future,” said Ms Sara.
They typically cannot work legally and “many of them end up working in the black market on really low wages”.
“Many Syrian refugees don’t even have legal resident status in Lebanon, and end up being detained.
“We don’t even realise how much everything we think is normal is a luxury for them. “For example, freedom of movement or even being able to hunt for jobs is a luxury that we take for granted.”
Ms Al Kasseer used to be a biology and chemistry teacher at a school in the Syrian city of Salamiyah before the escalating conflict forced her to flee and join an estimated 1.5 million refugees living in neighbouring Lebanon.
She lived there for a year before moving to Italy.
“I was living illegally in Lebanon before getting resettled in Italy and everywhere I went looking for a job in Lebanon, I was rejected,” Ms Al Kasseer said.
“When I told them that I was working as a teacher in Syria for three years, they refused, saying they can’t give jobs to refugees.”
She is facing the same difficulty finding work as a refugee in Italy.
For now, she spends most of her time learning Italian and teaching Arabic through NaTakallam, which charges US$15 (Dh55) an hour for sessions by Skype.
“I earn $ 10 a session and it helps us out,” said Ms Al Kasseer.
The rest of the money goes to NaTakallam to fund it.
Since its launch in August 2015, the start-up has generated more than $120,000 for 60 refugees. The idea was born from Ms Sara’s need to improve her conversational Arabic as a Lebanese-American in New York.
Although she and her co-founders, Anthony Guerbidjian and Reza Rahnema, focus mainly on displaced Syrians in Lebanon, NaTakallam also employs Syrian refugee teachers living in Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Italy, Iraq, Germany and Turkey.
According to the team, more
‘ Before this, I had no job, no money, but today I not only have money, but so many friends from different parts of the world Noor Al Kasseer Syrian refugee
than 1,300 students in more than 60 countries have taken Arabic lessons through the online service, either as individuals or through university partnerships and programming.
NaTakallam users are spread across the globe, including countries such as the US, France, the UAE, Australia, UK and Canada.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to get our daughters to practise, given that we live in New York and that they are only in Lebanon one month a year,” said Kinda Younger, the girls’ mother. “Knowing this service helps her in a difficult situation makes it a win-win on both sides.
NaTakallam also helps to dispel negative stereotypes about refugees as the students chat with their teachers about politics, human rights, the arts and the daily struggles faced by displaced Syrians. “NaTakallam came as a gift from heaven,” Ms Al Kasseer said. “Before this, I had no job, no money, but today I not only have money, but so many friends from different parts of the world.”