In the current emergency a huge effort is going into finding ways of dealing with the complexities involved in looking after refugees arriving from Ukraine.
Here in Belgium, from 15 to 23 March the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) organised a crash course on interpreting. The course was free to attend and designed for Dutch speakers who also speak Ukrainian or Russian and who want to volunteer as interpreters for the refugees.
The volunteers are enlisted by Leuven City Council to work in its reception centre in the Town Hall. They also need to enable communication when refugees receive first medical assistance and psychosocial assistance.
The organisers were keen to point out that this initiative was in no way intended to replace full interpreting training, but was a practical response to an equally practical need in an emergency situation. Participants were taught basic interpretation skills, but also familiarised with concepts like interpreters’ ethics and neutrality, how to approach child refugees, and how to cope with the trauma that refugees have often experienced, while at the same time protecting themselves from the associated psychological burden.
A second crash course is scheduled to take place at KU Leuven’s Antwerp campus after the Easter holidays.
For more information (in Dutch), please go to: