Healthwatch Rochdale work in partnership to provide Covid-19 information in various languages

Healthwatch Rochdale

Independent healthcare watchdog Healthwatch Rochdale has worked with partners including Action Together, Europia and Caring & Sharing to provide Covid-19 information in various translated languages under the banner of #TogetherRochdale.

Europia has provided videos in English, Romanian, Russian, Polish and Lithuanian, and Caring & Sharing have provided videos in Yoruba, Congolese French, Arabic and Swahili. All the videos are available to view on the #TogetherRochdale page of the Healthwatch Rochdale website.

The partnership piece of work came about following concerns raised by some residents regarding the lack of information in alternative languages. The work is an ongoing project with videos in Farsi and British Sign Language currently being planned. In addition, the #TogetherRochdale partnership are looking for a partner who can assist with South Asian languages.

Kate Jones, Healthwatch Rochdale Chief Executive Officer, said: “#TogetherRochdale has enabled organisations to come together to achieve the same aim, which is to provide Covid-19 information in a format that is accessible to non-English speaking residents.

“We are currently missing South Asian languages and are looking for additional partner organisations to work with us to help ensure that messages from #TogetherRochdale are as fully inclusive as possible.”

Kush Chottera, Executive Director of Europia, said: “Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Europia has been providing national and local organisations with translated Covid-19 information.

“Producing language videos in partnership with other organisations for #TogetherRochdale has enabled us to reach residents in a more engaging and innovative way. Collaborative projects like this will continue to be vital throughout the pandemic when supporting non-English speaking community members who are also EU nationals.”   

Kerry Bertram, Strategic Locality Lead for Rochdale Action Together, said: “This work has helped to amplify the voices of local people. It’s not only sharing the messages in different languages that is important, but the people who are delivering those messages – many are recognised community members, voluntary sector leaders and local volunteers, people that others know and trust. Action Together continues to support collaboration through #TogetherRochdale, to think about how we share information inclusively.”

If you are interested in getting involved in this project, please email info@healthwatchrochdale.org.uk

You can view the translated information here:

• healthwatchrochdale.org.uk