The Australian Multicultural Foundation, in partnership with several community organisations including the Northern CSG, The Huddle, Himilo Community Connect and KOMAK, has developed 18 COVID-19 vaccine education videos in community languages.

The program, titled AMF Vaccine Education Program, aims to counter the spread of misinformation that is targeting Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Culturally relevant, targeted video messages and virtual community forums were delivered in community languages to address the gap between official messaging and these communities. Videos have been developed in Turkish, Somali, Urdu, Arabic, Oromo, Dari and Pashto, as well as many other languages.

The videos guide the community through vaccine eligibility, where to get vaccinated, which vaccines are recommended for each age group, and address common questions and concerns. It is important to reach culturally and linguistically diverse communities where many vulnerable individuals are being misled by vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.

AMF Executive Director Dr Hass Dellal stated, “Misinformation and a lack of culturally relevant information has left many of our communities confused about vaccinations. Our Vaccine Education Program delivers important health messaging directly from official sources through community languages.”

The videos are a free resource conducted with the involvement of our culturally diverse community’s very own medical professionals and leaders. The videos can be found on the AMF YouTube page, at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYyFdj9CBXRlZOkRQcl8YJw.