NaTakallam

Displaced persons, many of them highly educated/or whose education was interrupted by conflict, face numerous challenges finding work. By providing a remote work opportunity as language partners online, NaTakallam gives them access to an income, informal learning and friendships by interacting with language learners worldwide, effectively helping them to develop their soft skills, improve their English, and build employable skills--at times conducive to full-time jobs/resettlement.

NaTakallam is the first ever language platform where language practice is delivered by displaced persons. NaTakallam is tackling the urgent employment crisis surrounding today’s global refugee crisis, and more specifically, the fact that among the 65 million forcibly displaced people, millions are highly qualified and educated individuals who have been robbed from finishing their education or finding a job due to legal and cultural barriers. Our solution is an online social venture, which self-generates its own revenue, based on the fact that these refugees all speak languages that many people around the world are interested in learning. Starting with a focus on Syrian refugees and Arabic, NaTakallam has worked with over 1300 students from around the world (60% in the US) and about 60 Syrian refugees living in 10 different countries (mainly in Lebanon, Iraq, France, Italy) by connecting them for language exchange.