Natakallam

NaTakallam (“We Speak” in Arabic) is a social enterprise leveraging the freelance digital economy to provide income to refugees, displaced persons & their host community members, by hiring them as online tutors, teachers, translators & cultural exchange partners, regardless of their location & status. NaTakallam's official headquarters are in New York, but its staff, tutors and translators are based in 30+ countries worldwide, with a focus on refugee communities in the MENA region, Francophone Africa and Latin America.

  • Organisation type Social enterprise
  • Year founded 2015
  • Headquartered New York
  • Registration France · United States
  • Website https://natakallam.com

Related sustainable development goals

  • Decent Work and Economic Growth

Focus areas

Focus sectors

  • Development
    • Economic development
      • Employment
        • Job creation and workforce developement
  • Education

Focus populations

  • Asylum seekers
  • Immigrants and migrants
  • Internally displaced people
  • Refugees and displaced people
  • Undocumented immigrants

Focus geographies

  • Africa
    • Burkina Faso
    • Cote d'Ivoire
    • Cameroon
    • DR Congo
    • Senegal
    • Burundi
    • Central African Republic
  • Americas
    • Venezeula
    • Mexico
    • Colombia
  • Middle East
    • Iraq
    • Syria
    • Yemen
    • Lebanon
    • Palestine
    • Jordan
  • North Africa

Programmes

  • K-12 and university programmes
    NaTakallam partners with universities and schools interested in bringing NaTakallam to bring real-life conversations, language learning and cultural exchange to the classroom. To-date, more than 2,000 students have used Natakallam's services to enrich their coursework.
  • Language tutoring
    One-to-one and group online language tuition is available in a range of languages including: Arabic; Armenian; English; French; Spanish; Persian; Kurdish, Russian, Ukranian. Classes cost from $16/hour and "conversation partners" can earn up to $60/hour.
  • Refugee Voices
    NaTakallam’s interactive guest speaker sessions offer enriching conversations that equip participants with a more nuanced global awareness and an ability to encounter a diverse range of ‘others’ with empathy. These virtual sessions can be tailored according to your team’s interests, as well as corporate social responsibility, diversity and inclusion, and staff development objectives.
  • Translation services
    NaTakallam provides translation, interpretation and transcription services delivered by refugees and displaced persons in Arabic, French, Kurdish, Pashto, Persian (Farsi/Dari), Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Tigrinya, Urdu – and more.

Financials

Funding model

  • Grants to organisations
  • Pro bono services
  • Programme related investment

Primary funders

  • Alfanar
  • Ben and Jerry's
  • HundrED
  • Qatar Foundation International
  • Sesame Workshop

Operations

Key staff

  • CEO and co-founder, Aline Sara
  • chief of staff, Daniël Kuipers
  • COO and co-founder, Reza Rahnema

Contact details