Towards the beginning of when COVID came around, the Warren County United Way applied for a grant to receive translators to provide to OSF HealthCare Holy Family and Smithfield for that added assistance between a patient and caregiver. Requests have been made by other businesses in the area to utilize these electronic translators and Executive Director Jeannie Weber shares they were recently awarded another grant in order to purchase more devices. Weber states the translators will be a great addition in the community because they work like a normal conversation:
“Basically what happens is you push what language you are speaking and then you enter the language that you need to be translating to. There are 74 different languages and it really is fascinating because it does go as fast as a normal conversation would go. They also scan, so organizations like banking institutions that need to have someone fill out a form, then you can just scan the piece of paper and it translates it right back,” Weber informs.
Warren County United Way continues to offer the free multi-language 211 service to offer anyone in the area needed assistance and provide information for local and state organizations that is non-medical related.
