Whether you’re new to the ACT or have lived here your whole life, it’s important to know where to go for your health and have access to accurate health information when making decisions about your health. However, for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, finding this information can be difficult, especially when English is their second language. That’s where Health in My Language (HIML) comes in. 

The program delivers information and resources about women’s sexual and reproductive health across various community locations and in a wide range of languages, including English, Cantonese, Hindi, Khmer, Mandarin, and Punjabi. Many of the women attending these sessions are migrants and refugees and benefit hugely from receiving in-language health information from our trained Bilingual Health Educators.  

So far in 2025, the Women’s Health Matters team have delivered 22 formal health education sessions across Pregnancy Options, Contraceptive Choices, Understanding Menopause and Safer Sex topics, with 277 participants attending the sessions. The HIML team worked with organisations including Navitas, Red Cross ACT, and YWCA to deliver sessions to their clients and community members. We have also worked with health organisations to include them in our sessions including BreastScreen ACT and Hepatitis ACT. 

The responses to the program have been overwhelmingly positive, with one participant stating: 

“I’m here in this session because I’m new to Australia and I want to learn for myself and not have to ask my husband or others for information about my health because it becomes his opinion not mine”. 

• Contraceptive Choices session Participant  

Another participant shared that before the Understanding Menopause session, she didn’t understand what was happening to her body and felt too embarrassed to talk to her doctor. She said: 

“In my culture, we don’t really talk about these things, so I thought I had to deal with it alone.”

After learning about menopause in her own language, she felt more confident and said she now has the words to describe her symptoms. She also mentioned she would talk to her sister, who is going through similar changes, and plans to book a GP appointment to ask about treatments to manage menopause.