COVID-19 Vaccine Conversations

ELA has worked with the NYC Department of Health and community groups to host 20 community conversations about the COVID-19 vaccine with interpretation in 17 different languages of the Americas, Asia, and Africa not well covered elsewhere.

From March through June 2021, ELA partnered with the NYC Department of Health, La Red de Intérpretes Indígenas (The Network of Indigenous Interpreters), La Red de los Pueblos Transnacionales (The Network of Transnational Villages), and other community groups to host 20 community conversations about the COVID-19 vaccine with interpretation in 17 Indigenous and minority languages of the Americas, Asia, and Africa not well covered elsewhere. Almost all funds for the program went directly to the interpreters, who were also paid for their time preparing what was in many ways unprecedented material and figuring out how to translate new terminology.

Conversations were up to two hours long, with open-ended opportunities for community members’ questions of public health officials. All conversations were also recorded, and the resulting videos subsequently shared online — click on the video thumbnails directly above to see the full playlist.

This was the complete schedule:

March 1: Tu’un Savi (Mixtec)
March 8: Garifuna
March 8: K’iche’
March 15: Kichwa
March 22: Me’phaa (Tlapanec)
March 25: K’iche’
March 29: Mixe
April 5: Triqui
April 8: Totonac
April 12: Nahuatl
April 15: Mam
April 19: Kichwa
April 26: Diidxaza (Zapotec)
April 29 : Tu’un Savi (Mixtec)
May 13: Tagalog
May 17: Indonesian
May 20: Wolof
June 3: K’iche’
June 7: Quechua
June 16: Tibetan
June 28: Mande languages