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MANILA – The availability of an experimental vaccine is considered a decisive factor in the current outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But some residents of the city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, especially women over 35, are not so sure.
For starters, they do not know what is "vaccine" nor its equivalent in Swahili, "chanjo". They only know "ndui", a term in Congolese Swahili that refers to antenatal vaccines, Ellie Kemp, head of Crisis Management at Translators Without Borders, told Devex.
"Women and the elderly [in Goma]the majority of them told us that they did not have the information they needed to keep their families safe. It's a terrifying situation.
– Ellie Kemp, Crisis Management Manager, Translators Without Borders
"That's the word they understand for vaccination, while men were more likely to understand the official Swahili word for the term" vaccination. " But unless you know it and test the understanding of some of these keywords … then you could miss [a significant part of] the population, "she said.
The findings are part of a new report from the NGO that interviewed 216 Goma residents and hired another 75 people in a group discussion to determine whether the information provided by humanitarian organizations on the prevention of HIV / AIDS was Ebola are included. The evaluation was conducted in support of the Ministry of Health campaign to ensure effective Ebola prevention and preparedness in Goma.
It is feared that the virus will reach the city of more than a million people located near the Rwandan border, making it even more difficult to control the epidemic.
Kemp said that understanding the language people use and the format in which they receive the information most effectively is crucial to the Ebola response.
"It is in Goma, part of eastern Congo relatively well educated and well connected. Once you arrive in more disadvantaged rural areas, you will find more people and more linguistically diverse areas [where] people have trouble understanding Swahili communications, written communication and the type of official Swahili taught in schools, "she said.
"Risk communication needs to adapt to the region if it is to be understood locally."
What is the French word for erasers?
While the report covered only the people of Goma, it gave humanitarian organizations an insight into what worked in Ebola prevention communication. This badumes that if French is considered the official language of the country, not everyone speaks it fluently.
During group discussions, Translators Without Borders found that most people did not understand certain terms in a poster in French that shows the different symptoms related to Ebola. This included words such as "bloody" and "gums", which, in the poster, referred to bloody diarrhea, vomiting of blood, and bleeding from the nose and gums.
When asked how they referred to the erasers, the participants used the expression in Congolese Swahili "nyama za mumeno", which means "tooth meat" or "bihanga".
In addition, some participants did not understand the meaning of certain illustrations in the information poster. For example, an image of a man's torso with reddish patches in the stomach was mistaken for being hot, or an upset stomach, when it was supposed to show rashes.
This helped the NGO understand how the designs can be misinterpreted, Kemp said, adding that some participants encouraged the use of photos instead of drawings. For some respondents, this may be a way to convince them that the Ebola virus is real.
Another poster using Congolese Swahili and approved by the Ministry of Health and several aid agencies "was very well understood" by the focus group participants, Kemp said.
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"So there are good things in place. It's about learning what works and what does not, and then adapting it, "she said.
International Rescue Committee Country Director Sarah Terlouw told Devex that the report would inform the organization's programs, especially when IRC is preparing its teams in case the outbreak reaches Goma.
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"Knowing the language preferences will help us work better in North Kivu and could also be useful to better understand the IRC response beyond Ebola in the DRC. It is important to note that the key to resolving the epidemic will be community engagement, "she said.
The report revealed linguistic disparities between demographic data, recalling the importance of targeted communication.
In individual surveys, for example, 21% of respondents prefer information in French. However, only 48% of women understand spoken French. Many of them prefer Congolese Swahili or their native language, such as Nande, Rwandan, Shi and Hunde. Only 48% of young participants aged 18 to 34 can understand French.
"Women and the elderly [in Goma]the majority of them told us that they did not have the information they needed to keep their families safe. It's a terrifying situation in which to find oneself, "Kemp said.
Why only now?
The report provides new information that could contribute to the Ebola response, but it also raises crucial questions. Kemp said that it was the first language badessment in Congo compared to the current response. And they were able to do this only after receiving support from a small group of organizations, such as IRC.
"To be honest, we find it hard to draw attention to the issue in order to carry out this initial research," she said, explaining that they had tried to raise the issue of language since the declaration of epidemic in August.
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Examining the importance of language for effective risk communication is still relatively new in the humanitarian sector. Kemp, who has been working in the industry for 20 years, said the aid community tends to neglect language as a communication factor. Most of the time, humanitarian agencies leave this to their national staff, baduming that they "can handle the burden of communication in multilingual contexts".
But that must change, she said. During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the language used was mainly English and French across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. But only 13% of women in Sierra Leone spoke English and literacy rates were below 50% in the region as a whole. In addition, more than 90 languages were spoken in all three countries, she said.
"So we have to start with a new major epidemic or any humanitarian emergency, to say," OK, is language a problem here? Let's get the data and find out, '' said Kemp.
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