RESPECT en Français

by Emily Moreton

Co-ordinator for French RESPECT, Sandrine Cortet, has been with the organisation for less than a year, but she has already had many roles within it, and worked on some large scale projects.

Sandrine was introduced to RESPECT by a neighbour and co-volunteer at a not-for-profit organisation in New York, and began volunteering for RESPECT as editor of the French e-zine, and translator of articles from English to French. This role rapidly grew as she became involved in setting up a network of French speaking pen-pals with Dieudonne Amisi Mutambala, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Coordinator, and Marc Schaeffer.

This turned out to be an inspired suggestion, as Marc had over two hundred letters from French speaking refugees just waiting for responses. The letter exchange has continued to grow since then, and Sandrine speaks of it with great enthusiasm, as "an exciting, constructive and rewarding adventure," working with a wide variety of people.

Sandrine was offered the post of French pen-pal exchange coordinator first of all, as most of the communication was being done in French, and this was a chance to cut out unnecessary translation from French to English and back again. In September 2004, she took up her current role as Coordinator for RESPECT in French (a position which includes working with French speakers as far afield as Quebec, Belgium and Africa, as well as France). This position involves a wide variety of duties, including translating the e-Zine into French, coordinating and writing occasional articles about the letter exchange, leading fund raising operations to send laptops to the French partner schools, and helping to set up a French branch of RESPECT University.. Basically, "I am involved as soon as [the] French language is."

Sandrine sees RESPECT in French continuing to develop through the letter exchange, which she mentions as both one of the most enjoyable parts of her job and the main area which she would like to develop in the future. She also speaks of the possible need to raise funds to continue to run RESPECT, as it continues to grow and provide both material and educational support.

Sandrine considers RESPECT to be "a network of people, NGOs and schools helping communities to meet each other and to set projects together," and it is this aspect of the organisation's work which she focuses on when asked why she thinks people should be encouraged to get involved with RESPECT. She notes that RESPECT's letter exchanges allow children, both refugees and non-refugees, to feel that "they have friends somewhere in the world and they are no longer isolated in a violent and hostile world." She sees volunteering as close to work – it may not put butter on your bread, but it is something worthwhile, which gives everyone the chance to meet people they may not otherwise.

I give the final words to Sandrine – "Come to RESPECT, you'll find a wonderful team and reliable projects."