Meet the man with 30 dictionaries translating COVID-19 public health messaging | Laura_R_Chung
Philimon Darmo’s Camden home is filled with hundreds of Assyrian, English and Arabic books. Among them are more than 30 bilingual dictionaries, which he draws on when translating COVID-19 public health messaging.
On any given day, Mr Darmo might translate new restrictions, exposure sites or other announcements, which are then circulated throughout the community. He is one of more than 800 translators and interpreters working with Multicultural NSW on a casual basis, although not all of them work on COVID-19 messaging.One of the biggest challenges for Mr Darmo is finding Assyrian words that convey the same meaning as they do in English.
“What makes him even more exceptional is [that] he does this because he wants to help others and serve his community, he is truly an extraordinary man.“ “We need to support the gap in resources and meet community needs,” she said. “We are implementing kindness calls where we check in on the community. Our clients say our calls are the only ones they are receiving in a week outside their family.”
He said that, while the government was doing well to engage with diverse communities, more could be done to convey health messages faster, as well as providing more targeted vaccination access.