Victoria took a photo with her family. (ABC Photo)
Victoria (Ellijahna Victoria) had to translate government information from time to time for her grandparents from Indonesia during the new crown blockade.
Victoria, who is in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Asia Pacific newsroom, immediately journalist Victoria, when Victoria Daniel Andrews, governor of Victoria, announced on Monday the decision to unbind restrictions
call her grandparents to inform them of these changes.
Victoria said her 83-year-old grandfather Eddie Gumoga (Eddy Gumogar) and 74-year-old grandmother Jenny Gumoga (Jeanne Gumogar) relied heavily on her to learn about the state's public health restrictions because she was "the first person in the family to be born in Australia" and to understand new English news.
Her grandparents also had to rely on her to access important health advice online because they did not have a computer to find government information.
Although Victoria said she was "lucky" to understand and translate the recommendations, she could not easily find all the information in the same place. "You're going to check articles or ask people if they know what that means. Sometimes I do have to call the new crown hotline to find out some (information). "
Although the web site of the state's health and human services department (DHHS) provides information on the new crown in at least 57 languages, the australian broadcasting company says that information on pages such as indonesian and traditional and simplified chinese are outdated and do not show new news on english websites. In order to obtain key information about the location of the test and the re-opening road map, netizens must also link back to the English page.
What is even more striking is that one of the main points of the Indonesian page was translated into Turkish.
The most recent update to traditional Chinese information on existing restrictions in Virginia appeared to be about a month ago. The outdated "new message" writes that since 5 a.m. on 28 September 2020, the metropolitan area of Melbourne no longer has a curfew, but the five-kilometer radius of travel restrictions remain unchanged.
It was not until the Australian Broadcasting Corporation contacted the Department of Health that the relevant outdated information was allegedly deleted.
The new crown epidemic information on the traditional Chinese page of the Department of Health has not been updated for a long time. (ABC Photo)
Information for non-English-speaking communities "fragmented"
The criticism of the resources of the multilingual new crown epidemic in Virginia is not uncommon. Last August, the Australian refugee Commission (Refugee Council of Australia) said the national and state campaign for the new crown was "ridiculous ".
The Virginia Chief Medical Officer, Sutton (Brett Sutton), admitted in June that the Virginia government had "not been in appropriate contact with linguistically diverse communities" in providing information on the new crown outbreak ".
Mordoro (Adele Murdolo), executive director of the Women's Health Multicultural Centre (Multicultural Centre for Women's Health), said that immigrant groups were "excluded" from public participation long before the new crown pandemic.
"We had many opportunities to build information-sharing infrastructure in immigrant communities, but we have not yet done so. So now... We really need to set up mechanisms to communicate with the Diaspora... And it's scattered. "
Just as early as June, a panel of doctors and politicians reminded the federal government, that authorities "missed the opportunity to protect the immigrant community a few weeks before the" surge ".
Vizhou finally announced the establishment of a community task force on cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD) government 8 month in the face of a second wave of violence. This is part of a $14.3 million program designed to provide targeted cultural support and communication to residents.
Mordoro said government communication with multicultural groups has improved since then, and community groups and leaders are better committed to working with government on their plans, not just translation...
Xia Weibin does not know how to find government Chinese information about the epidemic. (ABC Photo)
Basromets (Nicole Bartholomeusz), chief executive of the community health organization CoHealth, said the lesson from the new crown pandemic was that communities need to be involved in developing and sharing the necessary health information. "It's not just about translating information into their language, but we really need to make sure that they are part of the process of thinking about how to translate it. "
But even if the site provides a clear and accurate multilingual translation, not all immigrants can find it.
Weibin Xia,, an 81-year-old Chinese immigrant, has spent more than 15 years in Melbourne's Northern Richmond (North Richmond) public housing. social app became her main source of information during the outbreak, Xia said.
Xia Weibin came to Australia from Shanghai in 1996 and has become one of the leaders of Chinese community. However, she admitted that using digital platforms is difficult, and her vision is poor, reading web pages is not easy.
"I don't know where to find government information online. In fact, I have never heard that government organization provides Coronavirus relevant information in Chinese. "
