Translation Index

The COVID pandemic shone a light on the need to share accurate and understandable information with people from all communities and highlighted a long-standing issue in talking about health in local languages that may not have readily available translations for important terms.

While some English terms migrate seamlessly into local languages, others need translation or explanation to help people fully understand what the terms actually mean and what researchers, policy makers and others are saying.

Journalists and community health workers are often at the forefront of helping people understand complicated science and health terms in their own languages. Providing information in the language it will be reported in helps ensure that there are fewer errors in the reporting and that the reporting is able to reach a wider audience.

Through the Media Science Café program, AVAC’s partners have been able to reach print, radio and broadcast journalists in more rural areas of Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia & Zimbabwe with experts speaking in local languages to explain key issues in HIV and immunization. AVAC worked with the café conveners to develop an immunization and science translation index in 10 local languages specific to café countries.