Translating a Public Health Notice into Dari and Pashto
A provincial health office must publish a one-page notice about a measles vaccination campaign. The English draft says: 'Children aged 9 months to 5 years should receive one dose. Bring your child's card. Vaccination is free and safe. Side effects are mild and temporary.' The office must produce Dari and Pashto versions for distribution in clinics, radio scripts, and posters. A translator proposes a literal rendering. A community health worker warns that in some rural areas 'card' is understood as an identity document, not a vaccination record, and that 'safe' translated directly may be heard as 'guaranteed no harm.' The campaign starts in 10 days, and there is one translator and one reviewer available.
1. Identify the translation risks in this notice and propose specific fixes for each.
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Risks and fixes:
- 'Card' → could mean national ID. Fix: specify 'vaccination card' or 'the card that records your child's vaccinations,' and add a line that children without a card can still be vaccinated.
- 'Safe' → literal rendering may imply zero risk. Fix: use wording meaning 'very low risk' or 'the benefits are much greater than the small risk,' consistent with how local health messages describe side effects.
- 'Mild and temporary' → vague. Fix: give concrete examples (slight fever, soreness at the injection site) and a duration (a day or two), so readers can recognize normal reactions.
- Age range '9 months to 5 years' → ambiguity about whether the fifth birthday is included. Fix: state 'from 9 months up to the fifth birthday.'
- Numerals and dates → ensure local conventions are used consistently.
- Radio script → spoken forms must avoid words that sound alike but mean something different; have the reviewer read it aloud.
2. With one translator, one reviewer, and 10 days, how should the work be sequenced to catch errors before printing?
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Sequence:
- Days 1–2: translator produces Dari and Pashto drafts from the English, with a short glossary of key terms (vaccination card, dose, side effects) agreed with the health worker first.
- Day 3: reviewer checks both against the English and the glossary, focusing on the risk items above.
- Days 4–5: back-translation or comprehension check - have two or three community members who read only Dari or only Pashto explain what they understood. This catches the 'card' and 'safe' problems that a bilingual reviewer may miss because they know the source.
- Day 6: revise; freeze text.
- Days 7–8: layout and a final proofread of the laid-out poster and radio script (layout can introduce errors).
- Days 9–10: buffer for printing and distribution.
The comprehension check is essential because the translator and reviewer share the source text and may unconsciously 'read through' ambiguous phrasing.
3. The health worker suggests adding a sentence that imams have endorsed the campaign. Should this be included, and what are the trade-offs?
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Including an endorsement can raise uptake where religious authority is trusted, but it carries risks. If the claim is not accurate or not authorized by those imams, it damages credibility and may be treated as manipulation. It also ties the campaign's success to a single channel; if a local imam later disagrees, the notice becomes contested.
A defensible approach: include the sentence only with documented consent from the named religious authorities, keep it factual ('endorsed by [named council]'), and pair it with the practical information (where, when, free) so the notice does not depend on the endorsement alone. Do not invent or generalize an endorsement from one imam to all. If consent cannot be confirmed within the 10-day window, omit the sentence rather than risk a false claim.