Closing the Distance

Each Heartline event reveals, with increasing clarity, that the work is never finished. It evolves. What feels sufficient in one moment often becomes insufficient when placed against the realities of another. The responsibility, then, is not to defend our current systems, but to refine them.

One area where this has become unmistakably clear is language accessibility.

Although we have made progress translating materials, the nutritional kits distributed last month exposed gaps that I can no longer treat as incidental. Several families relied on partial comprehension, context clues, or the assistance of volunteers to interpret instructions that should have stood independently. The materials were technically available, yet not fully usable.

That distinction matters.

Nutrition guidance is only effective when it can be absorbed, referenced, and trusted without requiring translation by another person. When language acts as a barrier, information becomes selective, belonging only to those who already occupy linguistic privilege.

Moving forward, our priority is to increase the range and depth of language options within our nutritional kits. This will involve not only translation, but cultural adaptation, ensuring that examples, ingredients, and metaphors reflect the communities who will actually encounter them. Translation alone is not fluency. Context is.

We are also revisiting how families interact with these materials. Instructions should invite autonomy rather than dependence. Visual cues should guide comprehension. QR codes may link to brief videos for those who prefer auditory learning. Nothing should presume a single way of processing information.

Acknowledging these shortcomings does not diminish the work. It clarifies it. Improvement is not a reaction to failure. It is the discipline of recognizing that care, when designed for the public, must continually widen its reach.

Next month’s nutritional kits will be a step in that direction