Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony said today that his ministry has found a way to communicate vaccination messages to hinterland residents who do not speak English or Guyanese Creole.
Earlier this month, the official stated that the language barrier was a challenge in Region One (Barima/Waini) as the government continues its COVID-19 vaccination programme.
“In the interior of our country, we know we have the nine indigenous languages – while they’re not written – persons in those communities understand and speak those languages. So, in an effort to meet people and to get over these messages, the Ministry has been able to hire someone, who translated messages pertaining to vaccination, the importance of vaccination, the safety of vaccines, in all of the indigenous languages and we have been playing these as PSAs (Public Service Announcements) on the various radio stations and when people go into the communities, they have the PSAs they can walk with, so as to explain to people,” Dr. Anthony said during today’s COVID-19 Update.
Minister Anthony said that he is optimistic this strategy will help. He added that in the hinterland regions – apart from Indigenous languages – persons also speak Portuguese and Spanish. He noted that the Ministry has put steps in place to share translated vaccination messages with these individuals.
