As a translator, intercultural facilitator and migrant Haitian woman living in Chile, Ms. Marie-Andy Sanozier advocates for immigrant women and girls facing language barriers, access to health services and discrimination.

Chile is currently home to an estimated 1.4 million migrants, 12 per cent of whom are from Haiti. Vulnerable to labor exploitation and with limited access to healthcare and difficulty securing housing, they face unseen challenges as a result of a language barrier preventing their assimilation into Chilean society.

“As a migrant woman, I have always understood the barriers foreigners face when moving to a new country. Women may arrive singly or with families, but they are always lonely. Cultural gender norms that they carry with them from their own country often prevent them from building networks of support,” says Ms. Sanozier.

Ms. Sanozier’s fluency in language and personal compassion for Haitians who have come to Chile in search of better opportunities, have made her a strong advocate for her fellow migrants. As a charismatic and fluent speaker of Creole and Spanish, she has worked to navigate access to state-wide systems and services for women in particular. Serving as their translator and their advocate, she has led sensitization campaigns and initiatives for Haitian women to address the cultural barriers preventing their adaptation into the Chilean community. Ms. Sanozier also volunteers her time as a Spanish teacher for women, and leads workshops and events to help with their integration in the community.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, she increased her efforts to reach Haitian migrants who were experiencing higher transmission rates and higher mortality rates due to the language barrier. As infection rates rose among the low-income Haitian community, discrimination towards migrants also grew but much was because of their limited ability to access information on preventative measures.

“It’s unfair. How do you expect migrants to understand your prevention measures if they don’t speak your language? Nobody is explaining to them what needs to be done. They can’t stay home because they are surviving day by day and need to work or they don’t eat.”

During that time, Ms. Sanozier set herself the task of preventing the spread of the virus in her community, launching awareness campaigns in Creole and launching a campaign “One Helps the Other” to reach 400 vulnerable families suffering extreme poverty with food, hygiene kits and other basic supplies.

Following joint initiatives with educational institutions and the private sector, she also delivered a series of online Creole classes to health professionals to facilitate healthcare access for Haitian migrants. In addition, she worked to offer free medical consultation to migrants through “Donate your copay’’ a project funded by charitable private contributions.

Ms. Sanozier is currently working on plans to establish a foundation to provide a safe space for migrant women equipped with volunteers and services to teach the local language, provide legal advice and facilitate migrant integration into the national health and social security systems.

She dreams of a future where migrant women in Chile are empowered to speak out and take control of their own destiny and a future where they can live prosperous lives with strong community support towards the improvement of their wellbeing.

“Non-Spanish speaking migrants face more than just the language barrier. The economic and physical barriers are also there. Black women who do not speak Spanish have numerous challenges. It is time we address those challenges.”