What the Problem is
For people fleeing violence and persecution, leaving their homeland is just the start of a long journey. Even when they’ve settled in a new land, they face many challenges in building a new life in their new community. Key amongst these challenges is learning a new language. For people from refugee backgrounds, mastery of the local language means better jobs, better intercultural understanding, more friends and really feeling like they are a valued member of their new community.
A crucial ingredient in the language learning mix is regular and consistent access to partners to practice communicating with. Partners who understand that they are learning the language, who can be patient and avoid using language that’s too difficult. It’s difficult for language learners to find such partners, especially partners who can help the learners practice communicating a little bit, every day.
How Chatloop Helps
Chatloop connects people from refugee backgrounds to trained volunteers through a messaging app for communication practice in a second language. The learners are connected to a partner and together they do a communicative activity, such as have a chat or play a game.
They only send one or two messages a day, sending messages when they have a spare moment, so these activities can last days, or even weeks. When an activity is finished, the learner is connected to another partner for their next activity.
So the learners get a wonderful drip-feed of authentic communicative practice. And Chatloop gives volunteers the power to make a positive impact in someone’s life with just five minutes of their day, from wherever they happen to be.
And Chatloop goes beyond language learning. At its core, Chatloop is about breaking down barriers between cultures, making real human connections between people, and letting refugees know that there are lots of people out there in their community who want them to feel welcome, and who want them to succeed.
Read more about Chatloop here.
The Pilot Program
We’ve been piloting Chatloop for a year now, using WhatsApp to connect the learners to the volunteers, and using a spreadsheet to manually keep track of all the connections. This limited the number of learners we could welcome into the pilot program. Nevertheless, the pilot program has been very successful. We’ve had over 65 volunteers complete the training, and they’ve been connected to over 75 English learners from refugee backgrounds. Together, they’ve completed over 1000 activities, and the number of learners sticking with the program has been excellent, compared to other language learning apps.
Read more about the pilot program here and here.
The Vision
We want to put Chatloop into the pockets of all displaced people around the world, to enable them to master languages and empower themselves. We want to see volunteers from all over the world connecting with these refugees, transforming their understanding of the refugee experience. Refugees will stop being statistics, remote images on the TV, and political footballs, and become real people, with real hopes and dreams, who live just a text message away.
Who We Are
I'm Michael. I started Chatloop while I was doing a PhD in Applied Linguistics (which still isn't finished, but will be soon!). Vision, determination, and expertise in language learning and technology is what I bring to this project. I've mastered a few foreign languages, taught English in numerous contexts for nearly 10 years, and completed a Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics, too. I've also been heavily involved in the development of two language learning apps and an online English as a foreign language university entrance exam.
I'm the solo founder of Chatloop, but I don't feel alone. A Java developer, Artyom, has donated a lot of his time to make a good start on the Chatloop app code. Tinni has helped out with the code too, in the early days. Betari and Adji are helping out with social media. Rose, Boaz and Angus are helping out with the videos. And the team of pilot program volunteers have been invaluable, going above and beyond to help out. And watching all the Chatloop learners persevering with their English studies gives me all the inspiration I need to keep pushing forward.
Get to know us better:
How You Can Help
To achieve this vision, we need to build a Chatloop app. An app will remove the limit on the number of learners and volunteers that can use Chatloop. An app will also boost privacy and security. And an app will make the Chatloop experience smooth and rewarding.
But building a Chatloop app will cost money. We’re using this crowdfunding campaign to raise money to turbocharge the development of the Chatloop app. Your contribution will help us pay software engineers to build the app, and it will also enable us to produce more training materials for the volunteers. Please contribute generously and help us get Chatloop into the pockets of displaced people and volunteers all across the world.
