WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Para leer una versión en español, haga clic aquí.
There seems to be new information about COVID-19 and vaccines every week. Keeping up with that information can be difficult for anyone, but non-English-speaking Iowans are having a harder time.
"One of our biggest challenges we know with a pandemic, especially when there is a lot of information...is reaching out to our individuals whose language who may not be English," said Nola Aigner Davis, public health communications officer with the Polk County Health Department.
To bridge that gap, the department is working with community groups to get important messaging out to everyone.
Enrique Pena, for example, runs MiSaludIowa.com, a Spanish-language website that helps spread COVID-19-related information. The website started back in October as a partnership with the Polk County Health Department.
"It's taking the information that’s available and channeling it through one specific avenue or doorway," said Pena.
The website links to videos and interviews on Facebook and YouTube.
EMBARC Iowa, an organization that works with Iowa's refugee population, is taking a similar approach. They create online content in more than a dozen languages.
"As EMBARC, we started to share the news--13 different languages--for our community because we think our community needs it," said Iris Tun, who works directly with people in her community.
The group's videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
"We’re finding not only Iowans watching our news on YouTube, but there are people from Canada, Australia, Thailand watching our news. It clearly shows there is a need to have news and information about COVID in their own language," said Erin Kim-Cho, director of communications and development for EMBARC Iowa.
One more resource Polk County offers is a multi-lingual COVID-19 phone line that offers information in more than a dozen languages.