The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A new platform has been created by global Youth HIV charity organization LetsStopAIDS to help vulnerable communities across the world access information about Coronavirus Disease (COVID -19) pandemic in local languages.
The inventors of the platform, named HeyCOVID19.com, say that they came up with the idea after realizing that most of the information is in English and other official languages, yet there were no translations available online.
Shamin Mohamed Jr., Founder and President of LetsStopAIDS says that 65 volunteers from 12 countries joined hands remotely to brainstorm on what works best for their communities through interpreting and translating content provided by key organizations in the fight against COVID -19. The outcome was updates provided in over 20 languages and local dialects including Luganda, Luo, Swahili, Zulu, Bemba, Arabic, Filipino, Portuguese, Nyanga, Setswana, and Persian language.
The content focusing on personal hygiene, physical distancing, recognizing symptoms, myth-dispelling and how the virus impacts HIV-positive individuals, was picked from the World Health Organisation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United Nations.
“The goal of this project is to ensure that people living in the most remote areas are empowered to adopt public health precautions, act in solidarity and prevent the spread of misinformation,” Mohamed says. She adds that by translating these critical public health messages, they are hoping that barriers of culture, language, community or platform are easily overcome.
To address platform accessibility, Mohammed says translations will be also disseminated through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in remote areas so that they can be widely exchanged. “This is clear, simple, and science-driven information. Our content is free to download and share on any social media platform. Sometimes, Google Translate just isn’t an option, especially for local dialects”, she said.
This initiative comes in at a time when World Health Organisation has highlighted misinformation as one of the biggest challenges that they are facing as they are tackling the pandemic.
The organization’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said on several occasions that they are fighting misinformation more than the epidemic citing people who sell fake Coronavirus cures online and cyberattacks on people who test positive and hospitals.
“We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic,” Tedros has noted that fake information is spreading quickly and easily than the virus.
Mohamed says this platform comes in handy picking lessons from the HIV fight where awareness for accurate and correct public health and safety knowledge has made a difference especially among the youth living with the virus.
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