GLS provides over-the-phone, virtual remote and onsite interpretation to several clients across the U.S. government and private industry. As part of this work, we are fortunate to participate in endeavors that support furthering stability in places of political unrest. Since 2021, GLS has been contracted with the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), a U.S. government agency that promotes international development via grants with local organizations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, to include Haiti. 

This past week, GLS was honored to perform Haitian<>English conference interpretation for a series of meetings held from June 11-13 between IAF personnel and U.S. Senate/Congressional representatives. Topics in these meetings included, but were not limited to, the following: 

1. Discussion of how the IAF’s work has been impacted by the heightened political unrest in Haiti

2. Examples of IAF grantees’ successes achieved within the current political turmoil 

3. Areas of IAF’s coordination with other USG stakeholders in Haiti

4. How U.S. Congress may be helpful in furthering some of IAF’s initiatives in Haiti

5. Political challenges and risks to IAF’s work in Haiti, such as women’s reproductive health, climate change, etc. 

Since the first grant that IAF awarded to a Haitian organization in 1975, they have provided $31 million through 195 grants to local Haitian organizations. Specifically, IAF awards and manages grants that support populations in nine of the Haiti’s 10 departments to adapt to constant economic, political, and environmental shocks. In current conditions, just continuing to operate is significant in itself and can be directly tied to community organizations’ ongoing work cultivating resilience¹. GLS is proud to serve as IAF’s prime contractor for language services, connecting the IAF to its grantees through translation and interpretation services. 

¹https://www.iaf.gov/country/haiti/