My work with the Refugees and Immigrants Community for Empowerment (RICE) was to set the foundation for a greater project down the line. The pandemic did create barriers in hosting an actual workshop, so we set out to develop one that could be self-sustained and led by the community.
Parent Advocacy Project conducted by Cornelia Best
Since the start of Arizona’s resettlement program in 1980, more than 62,000 refugees from 109 different countries have made Arizona their home with 80% resettled in Maricopa County. Smiling Eyes Project was created out of a refugee community need for dental and vision care.
The Refugee Health Partnership is a collaboration between ASU’s School of Social Work, Office of Global Social Work, Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Program, International Rescue Committee’s Refugee Resettlement Program, and Dignity Health’s St. Joseph’s Medical Center. An investigation into the nature of health care access of newly arrived refugees began with a series of focus groups.
In Myanmar, mental health efforts are very limited on children and adolescents, and little is studied about child and adolescent mental health. In addition, there are no mental health services for children and adolescents in school setting. Schools in Myanmar pay attention to needs of students through educational perspective and overlook the relationship between school setting and students’ mental health and social needs. The purpose of this ASU IRB approved study was to identify mental health needs of high school students in Myanmar.
This project is a result of an opportunity to work in collaboration with the African Institute for Children Studies (AICS) in Nairobi, Kenya and Prerana Orphanage in Kathmandu, Nepal. Samuel Munyuwiny, Executive Director of the AICS was on a fellowship at ASU, School of Social Work in Global Center for Applied Health, and the group of interns visited the Prerana Orphanage from OGSW during their study abroad trip to Nepal. Both organizations are working with disadvantage children in the developing countries.
