Mobile health clinic provides care to remote communities in Melanesia.

Much of the world would consider the roads leading to Wopepa in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) impassable. But with an experienced PNG driver behind the wheel, SIL medical staff make the rough journey over the mountain in their ambulance—a rugged, white Land Rover—loaded with vaccines and other basic medical supplies. The siren alerts residents as they arrive, and soon after, people begin bringing their children to a mobile clinic erected in the village center.

SIL began making these visits more than a decade ago; on top of providing medical care, staff share simple tips on things like preventing the spread of germs and promoting healthy habits in the family. Today, Wopepa—a village known for a high prevalence of severe illness and medical complications among its children—has undergone a drastic change in overall wellbeing. 

As an arm of SIL’s medical clinic in Ukarumpa, the mobile clinic serves communities with limited access to alternative means of care. Without the mobile clinic, small aid posts provide the nearest source of treatment, but they often require a day or more of walking. If the sick and injured make this difficult journey at all, frequent supply chain interruptions mean they arrive to find that no supplies or medications are available. 

Clinic staff typically communicate in Tok Pisin, the trade language spoken widely across the country. However, this still proves challenging due to Tok Pisin’s limited vocabulary. Low literacy rates also play a factor, and clinic staff sometimes read healthcare booklets aloud to the community during a visit. 

Some SIL translation consultants have translated the clinic’s health education booklet into the community languages where they work. The community’s shared language helps convey a fuller range of detail and gives people more comprehensive access to this information. Hope persists that even more languages will be translated in the future.

“It's hard to do medical care in Tok Pisin because it is so basic,” says SIL Clinic Director Kristy Johnson. “For example, there are no words for specific joints. So no word for elbow, wrist, knee, hip, ect. Joints are called 'screws’. So if you are talking about your elbow you would have to say, ‘Dispela screw’ (this joint) and point to your elbow at the same time.”  

Those unable to speak Tok Pisin well must bring a friend or family member who can translate for them. This tricky process of translating back and forth, as well as the limited detail offered in Tok Pisin, causes painful delays. “Also, there is no specific word for your internal organs, so no heart, stomach, lungs, etc. You just call it all your ‘bel.’ So when you say ‘pain bilong bel,’ you are just saying that you have some kind of pain in your abdomen. Because there aren't specific words in a trade language, it ends up being a long explanation and a lot of pointing to try to get [the message] across." 

Language barriers in healthcare affect roughly 30% of the global population, increasing the risk of complications in treatment and unnecessarily prolonging a patient’s discomfort, pain and anxiety. Four languages are used just within the small valley region where SIL’s mobile clinic makes its weekly visits. PNG communities collectively use more than 800 languages throughout the country, and little to no healthcare resources exist in the vast majority of these languages. However, as more languages become supported in global healthcare, the opportunity for a healthier future develops for millions of people.