Equity Language and Employment Services
US Together’s Microenterprise and Development Program has supported a new refugee owned business come to fruition: Equity Languages and Employment Services!
Their mission is to provide interpretation and translation services to support members of the African immigrant and refugee communities in Buffalo, New York and Cleveland, Ohio. They hope to provide hope and a brighter tomorrow for as many people as possible in their communities through their services.
Their vision is to support refugees and immigrants physically and psychologically to help them not to lose their hope and to achieve their future goals and meet their expectations. Though they will start with interpretation and translation services, they hope to expand their services in the future to include other areas where their communities need support such as employment services, support finding homes to rent, support with paying bills, and tax support. They also hope to expand their services to support other immigrant and refugee communities with similar needs in both Buffalo, New York and Cleveland, Ohio in the future.
The two owners of the business are Harerimana Victor and Nteziyaremye Jonas, who are both refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo and now reside in Cleveland, Ohio and Buffalo, New York respectively.
The owners speak English and a variety of languages fluently including Swahili, Kinyabwisha, Kirundi, Luganda, and Kinyarwanda. Jonas has been interpreting with Refugee Services in Buffalo, New York for over 2 years. He provides a variety of interpretation in this capacity including social services, legal, and medical. Jonas also has a background in business management; he ran a department for Think Humanity, an international organization, in Uganda for six years. Victor has been working with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Cleveland, Ohio since 2018 as a bilingual instructional aide and much of his work is interpretation and translation for this position. He has also been an interpreter with Catholic Charities since 2018 as well providing a variety of interpretation for newly arrived refugees.
They have talked to many members in their communities to understand the struggles they face and how their services could support them. Having interpretation and translation available in their first languages will greatly benefit the members of their communities in both Buffalo and Cleveland; this will enable to them to make more well-informed decisions for themselves and their families.
They also know from their own work in Cleveland and Buffalo as interpreters that there is always a greater demand for languages spoken in the African immigrant communities than there is interpretation coverage, so they hope their business can help fill this gap. Members of their communities also often struggle finding better employment after their initial employment when they arrive, so having their team dedicated to supporting their community members in finding better and higher paying employment in the future will greatly benefit them as well as employers. They will be huge cultural assets as well as language assets to potential employers. They will be able to help employers fill open positions quickly with very hard-working members of their communities and help make the transition into these new roles as seamless as possible.