The colorful folding charts being distributed by the Ozark Foothills Literacy Project may look like laminated maps or children’s activity books, but they’re actually valuable lifesaving devices – pocket medical translators that help non-English-speakers communicate with healthcare providers via pictograms and short medical phrases.

In Spring 2011, ARCF partnered with the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas to award 50 $1,000 minigrants for health improvement projects in 25 counties in just under a month. One such grant enabled the Literacy Project to purchase 75 pocket translators to help the Batesville area’s growing Latino population receive better medical care. Distributed directly to non-English-speakers with the aid of local translator Maria Bynum and to medical personnel at the Christian Health Center of Batesville, the booklets have been a big hit with patients and healthcare providers alike. “It’s been helpful to be able to give our Spanish-speaking patients the best care,” said Kari Jones, director of the Christian Health Center.