Newsletter No. 4
23 December 2025
Dear partners and readers
FUNDI is pleased to present its final newsletter for 2025. For us, this update reflects our commitment to transparency and our belief that FUNDI is a collective project that can only grow and thrive through the involvement and contributions of all its stakeholders.
Thanks to a range of collaborations, we were able to organise several activities from September through to the end of the year, a period during which we also welcomed new team members. Below, you will find a selection of key highlights from this final part of the year.
We wish you an enjoyable read and sincerely thank you for your continued trust.
Interpreter Training for British Embassy Staff
On 20, 22 and 23 October 2025, FUNDI had the pleasure of delivering interpreting training sessions for staff of the British Embassy in Kinshasa.
Led by Alexandra Cardyn and Mineze Kwete Minga, the training introduced participants to the fundamentals of consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, with practical exercises in note-taking, speech analysis, sight translation and reformulation.
These three half-day sessions combined learning and hands-on practice, providing a dynamic space for exchange around the techniques, tools and professional requirements of interpreting, in a supportive and interactive atmosphere.
FUNDI warmly thanks the British Embassy team for their trust and for their commitment to strengthening communication skills in support of diplomatic work.
📸 Highlights from the three days of training!
Cancellation of the 2025 Interpreting Training Module: Lessons Learned and Next Steps
The interpreting training module scheduled for 2025 was cancelled as registration numbers did not reach the expected level.
This situation nevertheless provided FUNDI with an opportunity to carry out a thorough analysis of the data collected during the registration period and to draw valuable lessons from it. The analysis pointed to encouraging trends, including growing interest in hybrid or fully online training formats, as well as a clear preference for flexible, progressive programmes that fit around participants’ professional commitments.
Based on these findings, FUNDI will adapt both its communication strategy and its training formats in order to offer, in the future, learning opportunities that are more accessible, more inclusive and better aligned with the expectations of its target audiences.
In parallel, FUNDI will continue to develop targeted modules designed to address specific needs and recurring challenges faced by interpreters and, more broadly, by professionals working in the language sector.
Continuing Professional Development for FUNDI Trainers
As part of its commitment to excellence in the language professions, FUNDI is pleased to announce that its co-founder, Alexandra Cardyn, has enrolled in the Professional Master’s in Conference Interpreting at the University of Lomé. This is an important step both in her individual professional journey and in the continued development of the FUNDI project.
Interpreting is a demanding profession, requiring a high level of linguistic, technical and cognitive expertise, as well as continuous updating of skills and practices. Ongoing training is therefore an essential part of any interpreter’s career, including for interpreter trainers. FUNDI firmly believes that high-quality training depends largely on trainers who actively maintain and refresh their competencies in line with developments in the profession.
Beyond its pedagogical value, this programme also provides FUNDI with an opportunity to further strengthen and expand its international and sub-regional network. The learning environment brings together leading trainers, all recognised professional interpreters who worked as conference interpreters or chief interpreters in major international institutions such as the European Union, the United Nations, the OECD and the WTO.
The teaching team for this cohort includes Marie Diur, Kate Davies, Clare Donovan, Sroda Bedarida, Sophie Louyot, Louis Atsou, Paule Keke and Béatrice Manigat. The programme also benefits from contributions by alumni of the University of Lomé Master’s programme, highlighting the close link between training and professional practice.
Participants in the programme are themselves professional interpreters from several African countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo. This geographical and professional diversity encourages the exchange of experience, mutual learning and the development of lasting professional networks.
From left to right : Halid Bakary, Kolouchè Angèle Biao, Sidikou Oussoukpevi, Primaël Ouattara, Laurent Dadjedji, Steeve Lokonon, Timothée Akouete, Gaston Fawi, Abiola Gandonou, Alexandra Cardyn, Georges Kabore, Ange-David Yao
David-Eric Akuete joined the group a few days later.
Team Meetings and Organisational Development at FUNDI
On 14 November 2025, FUNDI held its first team meeting extended to new members. This working session helped clarify roles and responsibilities, with the aim of strengthening internal cohesion and ensuring effective delivery of shared objectives. It also provided an opportunity to review recent activities and outline the next steps of the project.
Beyond operational matters, the meeting marked an important step in building a shared organisational culture. The discussions reinforced team spirit and a sense of collective responsibility across the group.
Legal formalisation of the FUNDI project was another key topic on the agenda. More than an administrative requirement, this process is intended to provide a solid framework for the project’s long-term functioning, including decision-making, governance and accountability. It will enable FUNDI to evolve gradually into a sustainable structure, capable of planning its activities, monitoring progress and passing on its model.
A further meeting of the leadership team took place on 12 December 2025. This session allowed the team to officially welcome a new member and to continue discussions on the legal formalisation process, with support from in-house legal expertise provided by Isaac Kayemba.
The entire FUNDI team is pleased to welcome Winnie Pendeki Sangara, who joins the project as Strategic Advisor.
Enhancing FUNDI’s Visibility
A more dynamic website
FUNDI now has an updated website designed to better reflect the range of its activities and to make information easier to access. Clearer, more functional and regularly updated, www.fundihub.net has become a central entry point for training opportunities, events and resources related to the FUNDI project.
A growing digital presence
At the same time, FUNDI’s presence on social media, particularly on Facebook and LinkedIn, continues to grow steadily. These platforms have become key spaces for information-sharing and exchange, attracting an increasingly diverse and engaged audience.
The content shared covers a wide range of topics, including activity announcements, highlights of relevant developments in the field of interpreting, professional resources and advice, as well as insights into the realities of the profession. This approach helps foster dialogue, strengthen the community and increase the project’s visibility.
Through these digital tools, FUNDI goes beyond simply sharing information. Its online presence serves as a lever to promote language professions, showcase professional pathways and raise awareness of the challenges of professionalisation in the Congolese context. This digital engagement reinforces FUNDI’s position as a locally rooted project, attentive to field realities and committed to high professional standards.
Save the date: 21 February 2026 – Workshop for Church Interpreters
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many interpreters gain their first interpreting experience at church. These settings offer regular opportunities for practice and help develop core interpreting skills. From its early days, FUNDI has identified church interpreters as a key audience for awareness-raising and professionalization efforts.
With this in mind, FUNDI will host a workshop for church interpreters on 21 February 2026, designed as a space for exchange and reflection on the realities of this practice and on pathways for professional development.
Several interpreters who are active in church settings will share their experiences and career paths. The workshop will also feature Christopher Guichot de Fortis, who will address topics such as terminology challenges across different Christian traditions, the importance of appropriate equipment, available technical solutions, and the issue of volunteer interpreting.
The workshop will be held in a hybrid format (in person, venue to be confirmed, and online). Places will be limited, and registration details will be shared shortly.
By shining a light on church interpreters, FUNDI aims to help move this practice out of the informal sphere and encourage greater professional recognition.
Chris Guichot de Fortis
Christopher Guichot de Fortis is a highly regarded conference interpreter, trainer and mentor. A former staff interpreter at NATO, he served as Senior Interpreter and oversaw recruitment testing and practice programmes for ten years. He has also taught and examined at numerous interpreting schools across Europe and North America.
Deeply committed to continuing professional development (CPD), he regularly contributes to AIIC training activities and currently chairs the Belgian AIIC Network of Trainers. Recently retired from staff service, he now works as a freelance interpreter for international organisations and a wide range of NGOs, while continuing to run a migrant support NGO that he founded. He also devotes much of his time to training Master’s-level interpreting students and providing tailored professional coaching.
Alongside his institutional work, Chris Guichot de Fortis is very active as an interpreter in his church, where he offers his Master’s students from several Belgian and French interpreting schools real-life practice opportunities and introduces bilingual speakers to interpreting. This engagement reflects his strong belief that passing on the profession also requires practical, real-world spaces for learning and sharing.
Since 2002, Chris has also been co-director of the Cambridge Conference Interpretation Course, which focuses on advanced skills development for experienced professional interpreters.
Interpreting in National Languages: Express Your Interest
The year 2026 will place a strong focus on the “Roots” value of the FUNDI project, which highlights national languages as a key component in the professionalisation of language professions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Several activities are planned throughout the year, with further details to be shared in due course, including a training programme dedicated to interpreting in national languages: Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba and Kikongo.
Through this training, FUNDI aims to strengthen practitioners’ skills and gain a clearer understanding of current and emerging professional uses of national languages, in order to align training content with realistic opportunities and pathways for professional practice. The programme is currently under development and will be structured in a pragmatic way, drawing on existing practices and needs identified in the field.
Placing national languages at the centre of this work also supports the promotion of multilingualism in the DRC and addresses a major societal challenge: fostering more inclusive, effective and accessible communication by working in languages that are widely understood and used.
This work further contributes to repositioning national languages as fully-fledged professional tools, capable of conveying complex, technical or institutional messages, and to recognizing Congo’s linguistic heritage as a driver of development.
👉 Are you a bilingual journalist, a graduate of a language programme specialising in national languages, a translator looking to diversify into interpreting, a church interpreter or an informal practitioner?
👉 Would you like to receive priority information about upcoming activities and the training planned for 2026?
Express your interest now to receive future updates and be informed about the preparatory stages of this program.
The year 2025 is coming to an end. It has been filled with many experiences, wonderful encounters, moments of sharing, but also by valuable lessons that fuel our desire to move forward and improve.
Over the months, FUNDI has also continued to grow, welcoming new members and developing partnerships, both in the Democratic Republic of Congo and abroad.
We hope that everyone can reflect over the year not with regret, but with the feeling of progress, at their own pace, toward the goals they set for themselves, thereby contributing, even modestly, to their personal fulfillment and the well-being of the community.
As the year draws to a close, FUNDI wishes everyone a wonderful holiday. May 2026, which is just around the corner, bring peace, achievements, and resilience.
Happy holidays!
The FUNDI Team