Helping our neighbors is a universal language

Rosa, a Delaware County mom of four children, called us last week. Through one of our interpreters, she told us: “I’ve lost my job and do not know how I can insure myself or pay my monthly CHIP premiums for my kids.” Fortunately, she called us and we helped shift her entire family to Medical Assistance.  But there are thousands of parents like Rosa that don’t know they can turn to us for help.

The terrible toll that the coronavirus is taking on all of us would have been unimaginable just a month ago.  But how terrifying is it for those in our community for who struggle to communicate in English? 

These families don’t know if they can, or should, go to the doctor if they are sick.  They haven’t heard of the abundance of free meals, household supplies, or help with emergency bills that the region’s charities and donors have made available.  Nor do they know the array of government services being rolled out to help them and their children stay healthy and safe. 

They are shut in due to a prolonged climate of fear and shut out because they don’t understand the government’s messages because English is not their first language.

That’s where we come in.

Next week, we will start releasing critical information to help families make it through this crisis in at least five widely spoken languages in our communities. These families will finally learn how to keep the health care they have and, if they’ve lost health care because of a layoff, know they can contact us to help them get coverage for their entire family, just like any of their English-speaking neighbors. 

Of course, right now healthcare is the biggest anxiety for many families.  As parents lose their jobs, the health care coverage they relied on for themselves and their children disappears.  Our simple multi-lingual resources will explain that free health insurance is available and that PCCY can enroll them and their children in free health insurance right away. 

These families also need to understand the unemployment systems, the food and nutrition supports, and of course, how to help their children continue to learn while schools are closed. Today, PCCY is breaking from tradition and asking you, a regular reader of our weekly newsletter, to donate to help us cover the unexpected but essential cost of translating critical information into the native languages needed by so many families. 

Your contribution of a dollar, five dollars or more will help us reach our goal of $20,000 to cover the costs of giving hard working parents who still struggle to speak and read English, tools in a language they understand to care for their children during the Covid crisis.  Our work, along with that of extraordinary organizations in our region who are looking out for immigrant families, is essential to our collective public health and the path to our economic recovery.

Your gift of any amount will help us reach families who otherwise are suffering the deafening silence of social isolation, opening the doors to basic services and assistance we access without barriers. Please help PCCY communicate with those folks who need us most at this really difficult time.

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DONATE ONLINE

All online donations received over the next week will be be earmarked for vital translation services. Thank you!