MK: Can you
give our BNID followers an introduction to your work and organization at Found
in Translation?
MV: We are a job
training program for low income, bilingual women to use their language skills
to become professional medical interpreters. We provide both training for
our interpreters, as well as all other supportive services to make it possible
for them to succeed in our program and beyond. These services include things
like childcare on site, transportation assistance, mentoring and direct job
placement into the medical interpretation industry. We are also able to
hire our own graduates directly.
MK: FIT has a truly
holistic and comprehensive model to support women in gaining employable and
relevant skills. How did your previous experiences and insight into
addressing the needs of immigrant women in Boston shape FIT’s program model?
MV: I
think there are two main things that led to our current model. One is my
own personal story, I myself am an immigrant and come from a low income
background. So I’m familiar with some of the same barriers that the women
that we serve encounter on a day to day basis. The other piece is that
I’m a social worker, and within this program’s model it is evident that we at
Found in Translation consider many factors in the lives of our program
participants–it’s not a shallow intervention.
We
recognize the reason that many immigrants are not succeeding in getting out of
poverty has nothing to do with what is intrinsic to them or a lack of skills or
motivation, its more so a matter of circumstance, and external factors working
against them. A lot of the program is designed to combat those external
factors. We don’t just provide interpreter training like other programs
but we make sure that we address barriers like transportation and childcare.
Addressing anything that can come up in a person’s life that wouldn’t be
an issue if they had money to hire a babysitter or buy a car but becomes a huge
problem if you don’t have a lot of financial means.
MK:
Sounds like the model has been a great success. Within the program what
have been some significant successes, challenges and changes since FIT’s
inception and how have program participants and staff addressed and adapted
along the way?
MV: One
of our biggest challenges is the interpreting market itself and how it works.
For a lot of professions you get trained and then there are vacant full
time jobs waiting for you to fill them. But in interpreting it’s a slower
ramp to get into those more stable jobs. In the beginning most
interpreters start working per diem and freelance for multiple agencies at for
the first year or so. Then, as they work freelance, they gain a variety
of experiences and skills and they establish a reputation and that makes them
viable candidates for the more stable clinic jobs, hospital jobs, full time
jobs, steady part time jobs. The challenge with that is that not
everybody is able to make that investment. Not everybody is in a position to
take enough time out of their steady low wage jobs to be able to climb that
ramp to become a successful interpreter. One of the beautiful things
about this profession is that the certification that you get in Massachusetts
is good in any other state as well. It really is a skill you can take
with you wherever you go, it doesn’t expire, it’s a permanent upgrade to get
well paying work.
Another
big success is that job placement is becoming easier because our community of
interpreters is growing. New interpreters are able to build on the successes of
those who came before them. For example, right now we have interpreters who
have been in the field for three, four, five years and they aren’t just
interpreting. They may also be hiring, managing or teaching interpreters.
They may have a public voice in the interpreting industry and be able to model
success for those new to their career and increase their level of hope and thus
increase our level of motivation. They’re also able to open doors for them.
They’re able to give new interpreters the advice that you can only get
from a near peer because they are the ones who have the most up to date
knowledge. In some instances they are able to directly hire our
interpreters or recommend them when they’ve been in an interpreting services
long enough to have some clout.
MK:
As FIT’s mission states, the organization aims reduce ethnic, racial, and
linguistic disparities in health care by unleashing bilingual talent into the
workforce. How have you seen this transformation in action? What have
been some amazing experiences and or insight that you’ve witnessed within your
work?
MV: Regarding
the two parts of our mission: the first is to create opportunity for women
using their own language skills to get their families out of poverty and create
a better life for themselves. I think the first part of the mission is
pretty obvious in many ways. Earning higher wages while having access to
more opportunities in one of the fastest growing fields in the US is one.
It’s very easy to picture how going from earning 14 dollars to 27 dollars
an hour can make a huge difference in someone’s life.
The
piece that is right in between the two parts of our mission that is not that
easy to pick up on right away is that a lot of these women are new immigrants
and when people immigrate it takes a toll on their self esteem. When you
come to a new country and suddenly the academic degree you have doesn’t count,
the skills that you have are not relevant and everywhere you go people
underestimate you and devalue you because of the way you are perceived.
It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because you can’t contribute as
much as you are capable of because people aren’t letting you. So this
idea where immigrants are a drain to society probably could come true if they
aren’t given the opportunity to use their gifts to contribute. They don’t
feel the same respect or participation in society and often times a shame
develops around one’s background, accent, food choices etc. That happened to me
as an immigrant.
One
of the biggest transformations we see through our program is that women are
able to take pride in their culture again in a way that they haven’t been in
quite a while. Suddenly you are in a group where it’s actually cool to
speak your home language very well. And your whole future, career, and
contribution to society in this profession really pivots on your cultural
knowledge, your roots on your connection to your past that you may have been
made to feel embarrassed about in some instances before.
The
second part is in partnership with the women that we serve and their work
helping patients. The reality is that without these women as interpreters, many
immigrant patients wouldn’t have access to healthcare and that can be a matter
of life and death. If you are a patient in the US by law if you show up
to a hospital speaking Korean they have to treat you in Korean otherwise going
to the doctor is like a dog going to the vet. It is a violation of civil
rights to try to treat you in English if that is not an appropriate language
for you. It doesn’t matter if people have different opinions if
immigrants are entitled to healthcare access or other basic rights, those
opinions are not consistent with US law. When it’s reduced to a dangerous
game of pantomime it’s illegal and we have a way to fix that through certified
medical interpreters. We are working to prevent a shortage of
interpreters so patients can have that kind of access.
To
illustrate it more originally, the most important part of a diagnosis is your
medical history. If a patient doesn’t speak the same language of your
provider, you can’t get a patient’s basic medical history or an accurate
diagnosis and that slows things down. In medical settings often every second
lost is valuable. This can raise up healthcare costs because you have to
run many tests for something that simple communication would have solved if
they had an interpreter present.
Another
thing we take for granted is informed consent. By law you can’t treat
someone without informed consent but without speaking the same language it’s
impossible. Sometimes healthcare providers will try to pull shortcuts
like saying your child can interpret for your or the secretary speaks
Vietnamese or the janitor speaks Spanish and pull people inward who are not
trained or qualified and they are going to be making mistakes that can cost
someone’s life. Second, for an immigrant patient in this situation it’s
basically forcing them forfeit their right to confidentiality. Suddenly
your confidential protected medical information is known to the secretary or to
the janitor or to your child. We actually have many horror stories from
our interpreters of them having to interpret as children including one woman
who had to tell her own mother when she was 7 years old, that the doctor said
that her unborn baby would be stillborn. All of these stories are the
kind of things that can be avoided when there is a trained interpreter.
The women that we serve don’t just improve their own lives but they
become agents of change in their own communities, helping the most vulnerable
patients.
MK:
Sounds like FIT really addresses a lot of issues surrounding social justice.
Reflecting on your organization’s work in empowering women, what are you most
proud of?
MV: I
am really proud that we have developed a model that works. This didn’t
just happen automatically or by luck, it did take many iterations, testing
things out and really listening to the community. I’m very proud to say
the many improvements and changes that we have made over the years have led to
better and better outcomes and have come directly from the women we serve
because they are the experts. Personally I’m really proud to be an
immigrant woman running an organization for immigrant women.
MK:
What should Boston’s International Development community know about Found in
Translation’s work? How can interested followers further support FIT’s
mission?
MV: We are running a
grant match challenge right now, during the challenge any donation of any size
will be matched dollar for dollar up to $50,000. We are aiming to raise
$100,000 from just $50,000 donated. More information is on our website!
We’re on social media, active on facebook, twitter and we have a newsletter
that comes out with regularly. We’d love to continue to connect with people to
spread the good word!
About the Author
Millie Knopp