It’s going to be a big couple of years for TFA in Vietnam, and with the increased workload in-country comes the increased need for well-trained interpreters. These interpreters will be needed to support a variety of activities that TFA will be involved in, and in most cases, lead across 2018 and beyond.

In HCMC over the Easter long weekend, fifteen interpreters were trained as TFA interpreters. With the majority of the group living in HCMC and four of the group coming from Danang and Hue to join the short course. The group attended the three-day course, with the first day focusing on Speech and Language Therapy modules, and presented to the group by Australian Volunteer, Ms Sarah Day. The second and third days were facilitated by long-term TFA interpreter Ms Quyen Pham, where she focused on interpretation techniques and the group practiced by role playing, as well as the ethical principles of interpretation, and pairs of participants presented to the rest of the group.

The four participants from Da Nang and Hue each received a scholarship to attend the course in HCMC. TFA were recently successful in their application to Speech Pathology Australia for a grant to support the implementation of the skype mentoring program “Beyond Borders”, and part of this grant is being used to provide the interpreter training across Vietnam, including these scholarships.

The HCMC short course training was a real success, with participants really enjoying learning new theories and new skills, as well as finding new confidences within themselves. The group came together very well and enjoyed getting to know one another and working alongside one another. They are all very excited about being a part of TFA’s work into the future, which each of them has committed to.
TFA would like to sincerely thank Mr Dung Doan, a speech therapy graduate from the HCMC second course, who allowed TFA to use his centre for the training, free of charge. TFA would also like to thank Ms Quyen Pham for her ongoing support of TFA work, even though she now has another full time employer within the disability sector in HCMC.

TFA plan to offer more interpreter short courses across the course of this year, with the next course to be offered in Hanoi in May.