Imagine you are travelling to the other side of world, in a country whose language you don’t speak, nor understand at all. Imagine then that you may need to get medications, or a medical consultation.

How would you do it? What if there were no translators to help you?

Imagine. And think that this is what happens on a daily basis in most African countries. Except that in this case, when it comes to health, who has language problems is, ironically, the local population. But, you know, bad translations of food labels may not be such a big deal, however when it comes to health problems, language barriers may cost lives.

Western countries have done a lot in the past years to help Africa. Hospitals have been built, doctors have been trained, medications have been donated, sent and distributed all over the continent. But, unfortunately, that is still not enough. There is still one more step to take, and that is training translators and interpreters to help patients understand what doctors are telling them, to translate public health leaflets and, above all, to translate the instructions that come with medications. More.

See: TermCoord

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