How do you educate a country on COVID-19, or anything else, when there are seventeen to twenty-three different languages beyond the national language of Spanish? What do you do to ensure all people in a community, not just those with more education, can understand and benefit from the educational materials? How do you make the information relevant to everyone?

These questions and more are considered when we develop any of our courses, but especially as we gathered material to help people in their communities respond to the pandemic. As we talked about translating materials to the different languages, I thought of my friend Megan, Executive Director of Nueva Vida in Santa Maria de Jesus, Guatemala.

During a phone call, I shared what we were doing and she shared their desire to have materials for training their parents and students about COVID-19. We agreed they could use the content, if they would translate the videos to the local language of Kaqchikel. Here is what Megan had to say about the experience.

“We at Nueva Vida are so grateful for the collaborative opportunity with TCI because our therapists were able to use the COVID-19 videos to supplement and reinforce the importance of preventative strategies for our families and the children we serve. We are using the videos to support the health of our families and we are so grateful. Not only were the videos so well done, but TCI has an incredible ability to consider the cultural influences and make materials very appropriate and accessible for our families. We could not have used other organizations videos because they are not as simplified as TCI makes the material which was just what we needed. Thank you!!”

We learned in the experience the local languages need much more time than we allowed. We will make adjustments as we move forward. In the meantime, we look forward to see what areas of partnership God opens in the months and year ahead.