NaTakallam ("We Speak" in Arabic)

I am passionate about the work I do, because it is not only supporting   people   who’ve   lost   everything   and   are   being   met   with discrimination and rejection, but it also contributes to building bridges,  fostering understanding and dismantling the narrative around displacement.  While providing livelihoods to refugees is important, ending the root cause of displacement, related to war, is critical too. 

 If selected as a winner, my goal is to be able to impact more displaced & host communities globally, especially women. We are looking to develop more structured language program offerings in order to be able to deepen existing partnerships and forge new ones as well as access new markets and customers. This would require specialized teacher training, curriculum development & outreach efforts.

The Elevate Prize Foundation & MIT Solve’s network of experts, mentors & potential partners coming from the educational sector, could greatly assist NaTakallam and provide advice & support to create a long term plan to better assess and improve NaTakallam's pedagogical goals now that our product is successful and in demand. As a firm believer in the power of partnerships and collaboration, we are keen on leveraging the power of various stakeholders to generate deep sustainable impact.

Being Lebanese, born and raised in New York, where I studied at a French school, I’ve always been immersed in multilingualism and multiculturalism, passionate about travel and diversity. I connect with individuals from across the world, having lived in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Growing up between Beirut and NY, traveling even during the war’s brief moments of respite, I’ve seen conflict’s destruction on a country and its people, up close and personally, with my Lebanese family and through my work as a journalist, during the Arab Uprisings. I worked in conflict resolution and human rights with organizations like Human Rights Watch and the UN, gaining a solid understanding of the international humanitarian space from within, complementing my experience with academic studies, during my masters’ in International Affairs, a practical degree that helped understand the pragmatics of running an organization, from managing budgets to navigating international institutions ‘mechanisms.

Since co-founding NaTakallam, I’ve had the honor of speaking at UN and World Bank gatherings on the role of social entrepreneurship and technology in the refugee space, seeing my role not only as a social business leader, but a true advocate for peace, justice and the refugee cause.

The topic of refugees exploded in 2015, when the photo of Aylan Kurdi’s dead body on the Turkish shores went viral. Since, global displacement, nearly 80 million people, continues to rise. Covid19 has exacerbated the situation, and with climate change, another 150 million people will become refugees by 2050 (World Bank). Millions today have crossed borders yet remain stuck in limbo:in camps, border detention,host countries that don’t give them legal residency, barring them from the local economy with little hope on the horizon. Even when formally resettled,refugees face linguistic or cultural barriers to entering a new labor market, in addition to social isolation and stigmatization. And yet, the response from the most influential global actors continues to worsen and neglect the needs of those fleeing conflict.  

NaTakallam tackles the primary necessity of displaced & host communities to access an income by  leveraging the digital economy and refugees’ language skills, hiring them as tutors, cultural exchange partners and translators regardless of their location, providing them with income, a restored sense of dignity and purpose as well as soft skills that all while giving them a voice that helps change the narrative around refugees through their quality work and sharing their stories.

NaTakallam is not an aid organization; neither is it a traditional business. We provide meaningful work opportunities to refugees and their host communities, while also giving students the chance to engage in cross-cultural conversation, helping to end stigmatization. Our startup approach allows us to hire refugees, enabling them to earn income themselves. 

Most livelihood programs focus on traditional sectors such as farming & agriculture, not leveraging technology or exploring the idea of thinking beyond physical borders, which the internet would easily enable--especially during a pandemic. Such programs are often unsustainable too, relying on external funding that is always at risk of running out. NaTakallam recognizes that refugees, displaced people and their host communities have valuable skills for which there exists a market, especially in today’s virtual and increasingly digital world:language skills. NaTakallam’s innovation lies in disrupting the traditional ways of thinking about refugees/displacement:

(1) That refugees need to be helped instead of them helping others as instructors, translators, interpreters,

(2) That full-time employment is not the only path forward and that freelance digital opportunities can have their benefits too,

(3) That livelihoods don’t need to be limited to physical space and traditional industries.

As a social-impact enterprise, NaTakallam serves two sets of needs:

 (1) Refugees 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 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 seek 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, 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 Corporates who receive translation services that serve their CSR goals too. The long term impact is the creation of welcoming and inclusive societies.

To date,  200+ displaced persons have self-generated $1,000,000+ through 30,000+ hours of NaTakallam conversation sessions with 10,000+ users in 100+ countries. During the pandemic, NaTakallam was able to continue to support the income of its tutors and translators as a fully virtual enterprise from its very beginning.