Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Videos in many languages encourage Rotorua migrants to vaccinate

Rotorua Multicultural Council administrator Leidy Monsalves (left) and Rotorua Multicultural Council president Margriet Theron. Photo / Andrew Warner

Dutch, Japanese, Punjabi and French are just some of the languages featured in videos where Rotorua healthcare workers speak in their own language to share messages about the Covid19 vaccination.

The Rotorua Multicultural Council has received support and funding from Lakes District Health Board and BayTrust to make the short videos of a minute and a half each.

In these videos, Rotorua doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other health care workers speak in their own language to their community about the importance of getting vaccinated against Covid-19.

Rheumatologist Dr Thomas Armingeat speaking in French, midwife Katinka Huender speaking in Dutch and general practitioner Dr Karandeep Lall speaking in Punjabi are just some examples of the videos created so far.

Rotorua Multicultural Council president Margriet Theron said the idea came from similar video clips made by staff of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

The council's administrator, Leidy Monsalves, has been making the 1.5 minute videos.

Margriet says the Lakes District Health Board had liked the idea of this project, and had voluntarily offered $2500 of funding along with message topics they would like to communicate.

She says this initiative in many different languages could greatly help to encourage migrants in the community to get the vaccination, for reasons such as that they may not be reading local media or may not have the best English.

Ten videos in 10 different languages have already been created and posted on the Rotorua Multicultural Council's social media platforms, and BayTrust has now provided funding which will help to get 10 more created.

Margriet says people have been happy to get involved in the project.

"They can speak with confidence in their own language to their community groups."

"Many of our migrants work in hospitality which means they have been hit hard by the downturn in tourism, so it's important to the migrant community.

"Our members also enjoy the multicultural lunches and other events we hold, and we want to get back to being able to do those," she says.

They are still looking for people to speak in Korean and some African languages for the next round of videos.

Margriet says, "I'm hoping this project will be picked up by others, as we have 21 other multicultural councils in New Zealand, and 20 DHBS.

Leidy says it has been a great and busy project to put together so far.

Leidy has enjoyed meeting new people and says many are happy to get involved.

Some of the languages that will be featuring in upcoming videos include Croatian, German, Thai, Chinese, Hindi and Malayalam.

She says vaccination is really important to her to protect our community and our children.

Lakes District Health Board chief operating officer Alan Wilson says Lakes DHB is supporting Multicultural Rotorua, and $2500 was given to this project from Lakes DHB's Covid fund.

This project is about increasing the rates of vaccination through using local people who are respected leaders in their communities, and for which language may otherwise be a barrier, he says.

Alan says benefits of this project could include increasing vaccination rates in people who may be cautious about accessing services, or who struggle due to language or lack of familiarity with the New Zealand health system.