In June, the coastal community of Newport was hit by one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the state at the time: More than 120 workers at a seafood processing plant were infected with coronavirus.

As Lincoln County health officials began contact tracing, language barriers complicated their efforts to effectively communicate with impacted workers.

While some of them were native Spanish speakers, others belonged to an Indigenous group that speaks the Mayan language Mam, primarily spoken in Guatemala and Southern Mexico.

In the wake of that outbreak, Portland nonprofit Vive Northwest and the Oregon Health Authority teamed up to develop a helpline that translates critical COVID-19 resources that Indigenous families can understand. We speak with Vive NW executive director Jorge Guzman and OHA community partner outreach program manager Oliver Vera about the communities the helpline serves.