Diversity Fellow Project, Semhare Gebre
Supporting Refugees with Disabilities
Supporting Refugees with Disabilities Poster (761 K) Download
Project Narrative
1. Please describe your activities during your Fellowship experience. Describe your final capstone project(s).
I was a UCEDD fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital who worked with refugee families who have at least one member with a disability. This fellowship was a partnership with Refugee Connect, a community-based organization that supports refugee families in the Greater Cincinnati area. Referrals of families who I supported came from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital or Refugee Connect. Activities of my fellowship included:
- Medical education workshops for residents to learn how to best serve/treat patients who are refugees
- Various webinars and training opportunities
- Multiple refugee council meets (city and state levels)
- Case management of refugee families with disabilities
- Community education, including vendor fairs, to educate the community on the intersection of refugee and disability needs
- Development of capstone project
- AUCD Conference and poster session
2. Who did your project inform, help, influence or impact? (UCEDD, individual, community, state) How?
This project has assisted everyone from the UCEDD to the community and some individuals. A lot of the refugees’ families don't understand the health care system let alone knowing what is out there for their family members who have a disability. Educating the staff at the hospital and other places about how refugees’ families and immigrant families see or define disability are very important because many health care providers don't understand the cultural side of it for refugees’ families. This project helped open up doors for making the providers and community more aware of some of the struggles some families are having and that coming together and creating a bridge of hope and understanding makes a big difference. I hope that it has impacted some if not all to have a better understanding of other people's culture and traditions when it comes to disabilities because a lot of families feel a sense of isolation from their communities having the disability themselves or one of their family members.
3. Why did you choose to work on that project(s)?
Coming to this country as a refugee myself at a very young age I understand the everyday struggles that families face because my parents and many other families I know face it especially understanding the healthcare system and how it works. There are a huge miscommunication and trust issue with many families who have a disability or not because they don't understand many things that go in to play to have a doctor’s appointment or why there is wait for emergency rooms. Many families are given a small orientation when entering the country but very rare are families given understanding or break down on how to deal with health care system here in the U.S. I have a son who is autistic and it’s very hard to explain to people in my community what it is because there isn't even a word for disability in my culture, which is very sad because it all has to deal with physical disabilities. I feel this project was a great way to help better understanding to some medical care providers as well as other professionals who are going into the health field someday that building trust and better relationships within refugee families and their communities goes a long way because then there would be less misunderstanding about their appointments or about the different kinds of disabilities. I felt educating refugee families on what is out there and not being afraid to ask is a key factor that helps doctors help understand where they are coming from. As for health care providers, we all might read a little about different traditions people around the world have but most of the time if you help those new to the culture to understand how to do this here, they would be more open to it.
4. What did you gain from being a Diversity Fellow?
This fellowship has taught me a lot about the healthcare system and how it is built differently for those who have a disability and how there is a lot of work to be done when it comes to reaching out to refugee families. I learned that even though I have worked in different fields in helping families from resettling to immigration that understanding the healthcare system actually affects them in a much bigger way because many of them have never seen or been to the hospital before. I learned a lot about community outreach and the difficulties it has when it comes to talking about the disabled. It’s such a hard topic to touch on for many people but especially people of color and ones who are refugees or immigrants. First and foremost, respecting everyone’s culture, religious beliefs and traditions play a huge role in how they accept you. It’s hard to try to pretend to be in their shoes but sometimes trying to understand why they might need more explanations when discussing disabilities. There is a huge difference for some cultures on how they accept or see the different kinds of disabilities because sometimes the mothers are the main caregivers and sometimes aren’t the ones who make the final ruling on what goes on in the family.
5. How will this experience impact your education or career decisions?
Knowledge about the healthcare system and about different resources that are out there for disabled people impacts my education because I want to continue helping refugee families in any way I can. Having more knowledge about different subjects or topics other than the major we all go to school for is good because we never know when we may need it or who we might come across in our job fields that it may help. In order to help other refugee families, build a relationship with their doctors and medical providers, I would need to have better awareness about how to help communities. This project has impacted the job field I hope to have in the future because it has helped me better understand the issue between most immigrant families and hospitals is much bigger than some may think because some family members of others have passed away from health issues that were simple and could have been dealt with but nobody had knowledge about it in the family.
6. What are your future goals? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
I want to go back to school for my masters and do more outreach in different communities helping families understand that there are resources and places to go to when dealing with health issues. I hope to see myself with getting a Ph.D. and doing more projects throughout America and possibly doing a study of the impact it had on communities when you have classes for doctors and families together. Hopeful building a better relationship with hospitals and universities that are teaching the future nurses and doctors on understanding refugees' families fear of going to hospitals or even speaking up about what they feel. There is big isolation in many communities not only refugee families of people with disabilities because they blame the parents or sometimes feel it more religious so many try to hide how they feel or hide their family members who have a disability. I want people in my community to be accepting of people who are not considered normal and to try to not have one definition for what they feel is normal.
7. What recommendations do you have for other fellows?
I would recommend to future fellows to take advantage of all the resources they are given and to look out in the communities what events they have that could help your study or project. Build relationships with other professionals who might be doing a similar project or have done that project before in different universities or state by reaching out to them. It’s ok to get out your comfort zone and try something new because you never know how it can help your project or have an impact on you later on in the future with your career or degree. This is a unique opportunity that you have to make an impact on someone's life and even your own because the project you decide to do will teach you a lot about building relationships and learning from your mistakes and how to overcome the obstacles that you face along the way. There is a quote in my language that says “when you create a difference in someone’s life, you not only impact their life, you impact everyone influenced by them throughout their entire lifetime. No act is ever too small”. Even if the project you have seems impossible to do or hard because it’s never been done before most likely you starting the path for it, it will have a better impact in the years to come for someone else who in future might continue what you started.