Singapore’s Covid-19 Translator
Commonwealth Point of Light 164. Sudesna Roy Chowdhury
Sudesna Roy Chowdhury, representing Singapore, is a medical student who created an online translation tool which converts text and spoken word into Bengali allowing medical professionals to treat patients from migrant backgrounds with COVID-19 more effectively.
Sudesna was inspired to set up the website after receiving a daily update on Coronavirus cases in April 2020, and realising that the majority of those cases were linked to dormitories where migrant workers live, who would struggle to communicate with health workers. Sudesna’s translation tool, which at its peak has received over 50,000 user hits a month, has since developed into a community of volunteers working to support migrants through the pandemic. The site has also expanded to include translations of 10 languages, including Punjabi, Hindi, Tagalog and Burmese.