Highlights
- Multicultural Communities of Australia provided health information in 15 languages and reached out to thousands
- Carried out a vaccination campaign with the support of religious institutions
- Free flu shots to 500 people
Multicultural Communities of Australia (MCA), a not for profit organisation of volunteers in Adelaide, took it upon itself to reach out to state's ethnic communities to create awareness about getting vaccinated to protect themselves against COVID-19.
The group launched a project “Healthy Communities” during COVID -19 pandemic to educate people with little knowledge of English.
They first produced flu vaccination information in 15 different languages including English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Farsi, Mandarin, Nepalese, Gujarati, Malay, Arabic, Filipino, Greek, Italian, Bangla, and Pashtun to encourage ethnic communities to get vaccinated.
Deepak Bharadwaj, the CEO of Multicultural Communities of Australia told SBS Hindi, “The COVID -19 pandemic created an urgency to provide information about health and safety to multicultural community members. With cold and long winters ahead of us, it was vital to get this message out to the community.”
“We consulted community members from different ethnic groups and they advised it would be good to provide information in-language. We also learnt that many families were struggling economically and will not be able to afford flu vaccination.”
The Morrison government has allocated 1.3 million dollars to translate and make accessible information in 60 languages. Source: SBS
Mr Bharadwaj shares a local pharmacist, Irfan Hashmi came to the rescue and offered to bear half the cost of vaccination.
Irfan Hashmi, the owner of Terry White Chemmart told SBS Hindi, “I am of Pakistani background and see a lot of people from my community not getting the right health information on time.”
"I took the responsibility to administer and bear half the cost of all the vaccines provided in the 'Healthy Communities' campaign."
The group, in the last fortnight, organised on-site clinics in collaboration with religious institutions like the Gurudwara Nanak Darbar at Allenby Gardens, BAPS Swaminarayan Temple at Green Fields, and with AMISSA at Adelaide Mosque in Adelaide City where almost 500 people received a free flu vaccination.
The government provides free Flu vaccination for people above 65 years old and below 5 years old.
Source: Supplied
Source: Supplied
"That’s why we kept the criteria of vulnerable and deserving community members aged 10 years or older for our campaign," Mr Bharadwaj explains.
Nepali citizen, Keshavraj Gautam who is visiting his daughter said it was a great initiative.
"It is a great initiative for people like me who are not covered under medicare scheme and are not used to Australian winters," he said.
Deepak Bharadwaj says many members of the community came forward to donate for the cause since they kicked off the campaign.
Source: Supplied
"This encouraged us to take the project 'Healthy Communities' to the regional and rural areas of South Australia and Victoria.
“We are working in South Australian towns of Quorn, Port Pirie region, and Victorian town Merbein which covers the regional areas around Mildura.
"I want to request all community organisations if they want to do the same in their city, please feel free to connect, because together we can reach to a wider section of multicultural communities," Mr Bharadwaj said.
People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your state’s restrictions on gathering limits.
Testing for coronavirus is now widely available across Australia. If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, arrange a test by calling your doctor or contact the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.
The federal government's coronavirus tracing app COVIDSafe is available for download from your phone's app store.
SBS is committed to informing Australia’s diverse communities about the latest COVID-19 developments. News and information is available in 63 languages at sbs.com.au/coronavirus
