In a children’s hospital in Athens, 32-year-old Asma from Afghanistan is holding in her hands little Safike, who is smiling at METAdrasi’s interpreter. “A few days ago, Safike fell down while playing in the playground and hurt her head” Asma tells us. “There was a lot of blood and we got scared. Thankfully, when we brought her to the hospital, an interpreter was present and we managed to communicate with the doctors. Today, we came to have the stitches removed and thankfully everything went well. I really don’t know what I would have done otherwise!”

METAdrasi’s activity “Provision of Interpretation to Healthcare Services” is being implemented since March 2018 with the support of the European Commission’s Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid Operations department (ECHO). For the first time, the permanent presence of an interpreters’ team was made feasible on a regular basis, in hospitals throughout Greece. Within 12 months, interpretation sessions for 27,000 beneficiaries have been realized, in 27 languages and dialects (such as Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Punjabi, Kurmanji, Sorani etc.), in over 50 hospitals. While the targets of the initial planning have been exceeded by 120%, an increasing number of hospitals are asking to be included in the programme.

You may find a list of the hospitals where METAdrasi provides interpretation, as well as their timetables, here.