Partnership to help people get COVID-19 vaccination
Badriyah Eeso is one of the first people from Geelong’s refugee community to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, thanks to a partnership between not-for-profit service provider Diversitat and Barwon Health.
Originally from Iraq, Badriyah has lived in Geelong since 2016 and wanted to be vaccinated to protect her ‘beloved’ Geelong community from COVID-19.
“Geelong is a very good city for living and I want to protect myself and the others from hard conditions that happens when they have COVID-19 cases,” Badriyah said.
“Vaccination is protecting yourself and others from COVID-19 because in my home country we have lost many people to the illness.”
To improve support for Geelong’s culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, Barwon Health and Diversitat have collaborated to develop tools aimed at encouraging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The tools include a video translated into eight languages explaining how to book a vaccination and what happens during an appointment, as well as information sessions hosted by public health experts and supported by interpreters for newly-arrived and culturally diverse groups within the region.
Carmel Carroll from Diversitat believes the partnership will help to ensure people from multicultural communities living in Geelong receive important information about the COVID vaccinations in their own language.
“The partnership has allowed us to develop a video that will be used to provide community members with the information they need and give them the confidence to attend the Barwon Health community vaccination hub to receive their vaccination,” Carmel said.
Barwon Health CEO Frances Diver believes partnerships like this will help reach everyone in the community,
“Working with partners like Diversitat is key to reaching vulnerable communities in our region. This good working relationship is a model for how we can continue to collaborate with other agencies throughout the vaccination roll out,” she says.
Eligible Geelong residents can book a COVID-19 vaccination at Barwon Health’s Community Vaccination Hub by phoning 1800 675 398 (press 0 for an interpreter) or book online: www.barwonhealth.org.au/coronavirus/booking-a-vaccination.