Anna-Claire Bevan has a short story on how Q’eqchi’ translators are improving the delivery of medical care to Guatemala's indigenous Q’eqchi’ community.
On average, each month 900 monolingual Q’eqchi’ benefit from the translators’ services, and demand from the Q’eqchi’ population is growing as word spreads of the bilingual treatment on offer.
“When there are no translators it’s difficult because we don’t understand the doctors. When there are translators it’s easy because we can talk to them,” Miguel Caal Pop, an agricultural worker, said via a translator.
As well as assisting conversations between doctors and patients, the translators also ease the language barrier by explaining prescriptions, outlining the course of treatment and accompanying patients to purchase medicine.
Isabel Choc Choc has visited Sayaxché Hospital on numerous occasions. She says she keeps coming back because of the service she receives.
“If there weren’t any translators here I would have had to bring someone from my family. Now I don’t have to and I feel happy. They explain things to you so that you’re informed,” she said.
Locals say the hospital used to be like a private clinic, but the integration of Q’eqchi’ has been so successful over the past year that it now feels like a national hospital, and there are plans to implement similar services in two other municipalities in Petén.
Staffing hospitals and medical centers with bilingual or, better yet, multilingual, speakers seems like such an easy way for the Guatemalan government and ministry of health to better serve the needs of the people of the country. Given that the Guatemalan government is preparing to make significant national budget cuts, I don't imagine that we'll see an explosion of services like this unless funded by the international community.
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