Image 1: Infographic in Tagalog on ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection

Editor’s note: Timely and equitable access to information for linguistically diverse populations continues to be a major linguistic challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this latest contribution to our series of language aspects of the COVID-19 crisis, Loy Lising introduces three grassroots initiatives to improve multilingual service provision in the Philippines. The call for contributions to the series continues to be open.

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The Philippines is a highly linguistically diverse country with Ethnologue listing 182 languages in use there. However, with Filipino as the constitutionally enshrined national language and English as the official second language, most of these languages are often relegated to the periphery when it comes to national activities. Their subordinate status has become salient with the COVID-19 pandemic, as it has become apparent that state public health information in Filipino and English fails to reach all the ethnolinguistic groups in the archipelago. Various NGOs and grassroots groups have stepped into the breach.

Since the initial case of COVID-19 in the Philippines in early February 2020, various grassroots-driven efforts have developed, and I, together with colleagues from the University of the Philippines, Kristina Gallego and Jesus Hernandez, are currently working to catalogue these and assess their effectiveness. As part of our ongoing investigation, we are surveying the availability of and access to COVID-19 information and prevention materials disseminated on social media since the lockdown of the capital region Metro Manila on 15 March 2020. In addition, we are interested in finding in what Philippine languages these materials are available. Our preliminary investigation has shown that insofar as COVID-19 infection prevention efforts in other Philippine languages are concerned, much of the work done are grassroots-generated rather than state-initiated, as in the following three examples.

Project #CAMPana

Through the Project #CAMPana of the College of Allied Medical Professions in the University of the Philippines, infographics on the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 were disseminated in various social media platforms immediately after the first occurrence of the virus in the country. One of these (Image 1) is an infographic for adults in Tagalog.

The infographic contains relevant information on the prevention of COVID-19 infection utilising a number of (non)linguistic modalities to make the information not only accessible but also interesting. These strategies include the use of images, colours, and mnemonics (in this image, LINIS). The Tagalog word linis means ‘clean’ or ‘being clean’ in English. In the image above, it is utilised as an easy-to-remember set of instructions to avoid contracting COVID-19: L is for linis (clean), I is for ilong (nose), N is for no, I is for iwasan (avoid), and S is for sabunin (to soap). The L instruction reminds readers to always clean frequently used objects; letter I instructs how to cover one’s nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing; letter N suggests refraining from touching one’s eyes, nose and mouth; letter I admonishes people to avoid crowded places; and S reminds readers to wash their hands or use sanitizers.

The other is an infographic for children available in eight Philippine languages: Tagalog, English, Cebuano, Ilonggo, Bikol, Iluko, Kapampangan, and Waray. Image 2 is an example in Cebuano.

Image 2: Infographic in Cebuano for children on ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection

The infographic presents similar information but utilises, quite ingeniously, a strategy that makes the information not only accessible and interesting but also relevant to and attractive for children. The image juxtaposes the evil COVID-19 virus ‘crown’ image with a child superhero known as ‘Super Bata’, similar to Susana Distancia in Mexico. This clever strategy appeals to the children’s imagination and enjoins them to see themselves as superheros if they follow the eight strategies outlined in the pamphlet.

Language Warriors PH

The second grassroots effort is an initiative of the Department of Linguistics of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. They have created a working group called Language Warriors PH that aims to connect community translators and ‘language warriors’ across the Philippines to ensure COVID-19 related information is disseminated in as many indigenous languages as possible. This is a crucial step to ensure that especially those who are in the periphery, socially and geographically, have access to crucial information. This volunteer group, as of their May 08 report, has collected 927 COVID-19 related materials across 70 Philippine languages, dialects, and sociolects. The translated information spans topics on physical and mental health, socio-economic support, news and current affairs, and other miscellaneous information. The volunteer translators who have done the work of translating COVID-19 related information for various ethnolinguistic groups, which LWPH collect and help disseminate, include teachers, language enthusiasts, national government staff, local government unit staff, and private organization members.

Reading, Early Grades, Art and Language Education (REGALE)

A third truly outstanding effort worth featuring is the community-generated dictionaries for children produced by the Reading, Early Grades, Art and Language Education (REGALE) cluster from the College of Education of the University of the Philippines. In their efforts to ensure that children are kept up-to-date with information related to COVID-19 and its prevention, they have produced thus far four dictionaries for children: one in English, one in Tagalog, one in Cebuano, and the most recent one in Surigaonon. These dictionaries are also accessible in Filipino Sign Language, the link of which is embedded in the dictionary. In addition, and more recently, REGALE also produced video clips to further engage children in COVID-19 discussions. The first of these is now available.

Is public health information reaching the Philippine’s ethnolinguistic minorities?

Public dissemination of information in a multilingual ecology that is inclusive of all ethnolinguistic groups is always challenging, particularly one that involves so many languages. In the Philippines, the predominant use of Filipino and English across a number of national domains has always been motivated by the privileged position these languages hold in the country’s national language policy. The necessity, however, of ensuring the dissemination of potentially life-saving information at a time of a pandemic to as many ethnolinguistic groups as possible cannot be overemphasised. Thus far, in the country, we have seen various grassroots efforts, as exemplified above, rise to the challenge in bridging the information gap. My colleagues and I hope that once our research is concluded, we will be able to emphasize the role of grassroots efforts in the production of public health information across the archipelago to be able to influence state policies to improve information dissemination in all the languages Filipinos use and understand.

Language challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic

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