Community groups are banding together to produce localised coronavirus information videos in a range of languages for people in Coffs Harbour's refugee resettlement zone.
The project has brought together the Red Cross migrant program NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) and the Coffs-Clarence police to form the Multicultural Information Co-op (MICO) to provide time-sensitive information to communities where English is an additional language.
A group of 20 volunteers have already completed more than 50 COVID information videos in 18 languages to be shared on social media. Within seven weeks, the videos have reached 17,500 people on just one Facebook page.
Yarob Haddad, originally from Damascus in Syria and has worked as an Arabic translator for a health service and Centrelink since arriving in Australia, says he receives a lot of calls for help from his community.
"I worked for 16 years as an interpreter but in the evening time we received a lot of calls and in our culture, we have to answer it and can't say, 'that's in our rest time'," Mr Haddad said.
He has joined the project to share the latest information with his community.
"I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience as a MICO volunteer," he said.
Translating the news
Zarin Rashidi is from Afghanistan and speaks in Dari, Farsi and Persian.
She says when the local Afghan community try to watch the news, they often need help interpreting the information.
"An example is my Mum when she turns on the TV there's someone talking about coronavirus but she doesn't know [what's being said] so she calls me to come and help translate," she said.
"Now we make a short video of one or two minutes in [that] language and share for everyone in Dari for everywhere like a police Facebook page and community pages."
Beyond language and literacy barriers
STARTTS community project officer Rebecca Blayney said often written COVID resources were Sydney-centric and the community needed more localised information.
"It really began with feedback from these people who've become volunteers who've said, 'People are calling me all the time, they're very confused'," she said.
"So we thought it'll be a great way to reduce their workload and make sure people feel calm and safe.
"I think getting the information they need in a video format so it's accessible to everyone no matter what their literacy skills are has really gone a long way to help the community feel they understand what's happening in Coffs Harbour."
Amanda Flack, from Red Cross, said addressing the community needs had empowered the volunteers and others in the community to be heard.
"I'm proud to see people are stepping up in a really uncertain time and saying, 'I'll do a video' so it's been remarkable.
"We're still looking for an additional 10 languages and we'd like more interpreters who speak the languages we already have."
In the culturally diverse community of Coffs Harbour, this may be just the beginning of an important project for other urgent information that needs to be communicated in the near future.
"It moves beyond the borders of the pandemic, it's about beach safety and fires and floods, and if we can empower our community to have that availability in a preferred language, we're creating that community cohesion," Ms Flack said.
