We’re lucky to have two guests today who are both working on bridging the communication gap with the migrant worker community in Singapore, primarily those affected by the COVID-19 crisis. They may be addressing the same issue but they are also working on distinct projects, with each driving a different part of the solution. Our guests are:

Sudesna Roy Chowdhury who created a Bengali translation portal on a free Wix site which subsequently inspired other tools such as Translatefor.sg created by a team led by Aniruddha. This is a free translation resource tailored for all medical practitioners in Singapore in light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak in migrant worker dormitories. Languages currently include Bengali, Burmese, Telugu and Tagalog.

Shaina Tan from Visualaid.sg. Visualaid is an effort led by Jason Leow and Shaina, to build a resource site of illustrated translations that can be used as flashcards to help healthcare workers communicate better with migrant workers affected by COVID-19.

In this interview, we talk about the stories behind the ideas, the crowd-sourcing effort that drove both resources, and how it was like serving the migrant worker community. Jump in!