When Claudette Aspilaire fled Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, she left the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, where she had lived a relatively comfortable life as a teacher, to come to the wealthiest country, and find herself suddenly plunged into poverty.
In the United States, she couldn't find work but she had one crucial advantage: She spoke French, Haitian Creole and English.
"There comes a point where you realize this is an asset not everyone has," said Maria Vertkin, a Russian immigrant who runs the Cambridge-based nonprofit Found in Translation. "There's a shortage of bilingual talent, but there are so many bilingual people like Claudette who are overlooked."
Aspilaire enrolled in the medical-interpreter training program and today earns $20 an hour as an interpreter at Sharewood Project, a free-health care organization run by Tufts Medical School students and faculty in Malden.
"It's interesting helping others like me," said Aspilaire, a 60-year-old mother of three. "It's a stable job to help my family."
Vertkin started Found in Translation in 2011 with a $40,000 grant after graduating from Regis College with a degree in social work. She wanted to help women find work as a way out of poverty, but she knew that minimum-wage jobs weren't enough.
She discovered that the need for medical interpreters was expected to grow by 42 percent over the next decade, with a median annual wage of $45,430.
"I thought: This is a perfect fit," she said.
In January 2012, Found in Translation began offering a 12-week medical interpreter certificate course that, unlike other programs, was free to income-eligible women.
The first year, Vertkin had 164 applicants for 21 openings. The second year, she had 195 applicants for 31 openings. And this year, she had 235 applicants for 32.
"They act not only as interpreters, but also as liaisons to the communities we serve," said Elena Hill, the sexual- and reproductive-health director at Sharewood Project. "They show compassion and help us understand our patients better. So it's mutually beneficial to us, to the patients and to the interpreters."
Recently, the program was one of 128 startups the MassChallenge accelerator selected to receive free office space, mentoring and a chance at a share of $1.75 million in cash prizes — money that could help Found in Translation become self–sustaining and eventually branch out into training women to become interpreters in other fields, such as the law, Vertkin said.
"The program is innovative and empowers women economically," said Imina Nosa, one of Found in Translation's language coaches. "I see them growing from being powerless immigrants to people who bring value by applying what they have to help others and earn a livelihood. It's gratifying to see that transformation."
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