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Layla Guled didn’t set out to become an interpreter when she arrived in the United States from Somalia in 1995. A visit to a hospital, however, changed that.
One day, a female friend asked her to interpret for her during a hospital stay. Guled agreed and realized the challenge that some non-English speaking Somalians face in communicating with health care providers.
“It wasn’t just the language barrier,” said Guled, the only full-time Somali interpreter at BWH. “There also was a cultural barrier. Many Somali patients don’t know a lot about cancer and other serious illnesses.”
Guled joined the BWH African Women’s Health Center when it opened in 1999 and spends every Wednesday interpreting for six to 15 female patients from Somalia in the center’s OB African Clinic. She interprets for African immigrants and refugees who have undergone female circumcision while they receive obstetric, gynecologic and reproductive care.
When the first patient arrived last Wednesday, Guled greeted her with a smile, a hug and a kiss on each cheek.
“When see the same patients over and over, you develop a bond with them,” said Guled. “That bond is important because it makes them comfortable coming back.”
In between interpreting for patients, Guled makes her way back to the waiting room, knowing patients with later appointments will look for her as they walk in. When they do, she greets them in the same warm way.
“This clinic could not work without Layla,” said Nawal Nour, MD, MPH, director of African Women’s Health Care at BWH. “Our patients love her.”
Guled often is paged to other areas of the hospital where Somalian patients are receiving care. As she waited for another patient to show up at the clinic last week, she was paged by an employee at BIMA to interpret for a Somali patient.
“I look forward to every page,” Guled said. “Every page I get is another opportunity to help another patient.”