Department of Health and Human Services: Operation Athena

Introductory Summary: It’s March 2020 and Alicia Leon, CHI™ Spanish, is recruited for a community interpreting project on the US/Mexico border known as Operation Athena. An unaccompanied minor who only speaks an indigenous language comes into the clinic with stomach pain.

Disclaimer:: This text is an original work of fiction based on real scenarios. Any similarities between people or places are purely coincidental.

Participants

Contributors

Author

Romina Espinosa

Co-Author

Ana Soler

Editors

Devin Gilbert

Yohana Imperio

Allison deFreese

Audio Engineer

Omar Mendoza

Voice Actors

Full Summary: It is March 2020 and Alicia Leon, CHI™ Spanish (Certified Healthcare Interpreter), gets recruited by a language agency in a city on the US/Mexico border for a community interpreting project known as Operation Athena. This project lasts four months. Several social service agencies and a local children’s hospital participate in Operation Athena during this time. It is a vital project funded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Unaccompanied Children Program. Thousands of unaccompanied minors arrive from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Brazil, and Ecuador to many cities on the US/Mexico border. These children need services such as education, healthcare, childcare, basic needs, and legal representation for their immigration asylum cases. The program’s ultimate goal is for unaccompanied minors to be reunited with their families in the United States or to be placed in the US foster care system. Alicia Leon comes every day for four months and interprets at the Urgent Care station on the first floor of the five story Convention Center building. In this particular scenario, a ten-year-old unaccompanied minor assists Alicia with relay interpreting for another unaccompanied minor who is in urgent need of access to healthcare.

Main Challenges: The interpreter, Alicia, speaks English and Spanish. The ten-year-old patient, Lucia, comes to urgent care experiencing weakness and abdominal pain. Lucia does not speak English or Spanish. She speaks two indigenous languages from Guatemala: K'iche' and Mam. Lucia is holding onto her friend’s shoulder as she arrives for treatment and is held from the waist by her friend Fatima. Fatima speaks Spanish, K'iche', and Mam. When the doctor for the night shift, Dr. Nguyen, dials a local vendor for remote language service, an interpreter who speaks Quiché or Mam is not available. In this urgent situation, Dr. Nguyen proposes relay interpreting. Since no interpreter is found for the language combination, the help of a minor to assist another child in a critical healthcare situation is the only resource available after exhausting all other options.

Key Terminology and Vocabulary

English	español
relay interpreting	interpretación de relé	---
medical visit questionnaire	cuestionario de visita médica	---
K'iche'	quiché	---
Mam	mam	---
tummy	panza	---
stomach	estómago	---
urgent care	cuidado de urgencia	---
diarrhea	diarrea	---
exam table	camilla	---
lung	pulmón	---
deep breath in	inhala profundo	---
deep breath out	exhala profundo	---
stethoscope	estetoscopio	---
aftertaste	regusto	sabor
medication	medicamento	---
be itchy	picar	---
lice	piojos	---

Click or tap ???? to reveal terms in other language. Click again to hide.

Supplementary Resources: Trauma-Informed Work with Asylum-Seeking Youth at the Border (MHTTC); Migrant Caravan: What is it and why does it matter? (BBC); Migrant Caravan: Thousands Move Into Guatemala, Hoping to Reach U.S. (NPR); Caravana de Honduras avanza rumbo a Estados Unidos (El País); Estados Unidos permitirá que los jóvenes centroamericanos puedan reunirse con sus padres que ya están en el país (NY Times); U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement: An Office of the Administration for Children & Families; Millions of children translate for their immigrant families. I am one of them. (Umme Orthe); Interpretación de relé (Universidad de Vigo); Lice infestation (Merck Manual); Infestación por piojos (Merck Manual); What You Need to Succeed in Remote Interpreting! (Eliana Lobo); Four Years in 4600 Characters or My Thoughts on Immigration Journeys (Olena Hart)

Dialogue