New Hampshire Minority Health Coalition

I'm Deborah Schachter from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and this is Giving Matters.

Hospitals, complicated diagnoses, voicemail loops, insurance issues... navigating the health care system can be complicated even if you do speak English, have roots in the community, and have a car. The Minority Health Coalition makes it easier for people who face language or cultural barriers to meet their health care needs.

Guadalupe Salazar relied on the Minority Health Coalition for interpretation during her pregnancy with her first child:

"At the doctor's, she would interpret for me, and at home, she'd give me lots of information, since I was a first time mom."

Jeannie Holt is the executive director of the Minority Health Coalition.

"When a woman gets pregnant she has her aunties, and she has her mother and even her grandmother - people around her who've raised children, and they know how to tell when a baby is seriously sick and when a baby has a bad cold.

"But when people come to New Hampshire, they don't have that network of people, outside just going to the doctor."

Guadalupe Salazar knows that she can call the Coalition at any time and they will help her get the care she needs.

"She has told me if I have a problem to call anytime of night, cause she says, if I see that it's from your house I know it has to be something of an emergency. The Coalition has helped me a lot, a lot, a lot and I really appreciate them."

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Giving Matters is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

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