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Organized refugee resettlement and the creation of new neighborhoods and communities can’t be handled by the current resettlement agencies. Health is one huge area agencies aren't able to address; another is the creation of a supportive cultural environment in which effective learning and acculturation can take place.
Community health workers with the help of H Wier Siu, a Montagnard physician, put together a Building Stronger Neighborhoods grant for refugee women unable to receive services because they don’t have transportation, must take care of children or grandchildren, or aren't allowed by husbands to leave the neighborhood. Learning to read and write are fundamental skills to empower women and help them make good choices.
Most Montagnard families can’t access the local health system.
Piedmont hospitals continue to build and invest in bigger facilities, but for refugees, their costs are high and when they seek help there is little cultural understanding by US doctors about their problems.
While Piedmont medicine boasts state-of-the-art technology, many refugees live in truly bad housing. Here the tenant has used cardboard and clear tape to block out the thirty degree weather.
After 25 years, Piedmont healthcare providers have come up with few solutions to the problems Montagnard refugees face. For many, local health services only add to their worries and poverty.
The Women’s Learning Group is organized by refugee women. It provides isolated women a chance to socialize and learn close to home. Money from the Building Stronger Neighborhoods grant is going to pay for pencils, paper and books.
Grant money is also being used to pay for high quality soil mix. Most refugees can't afford American health, but they can use their farm skills to grow healthy food. Urban farming offers good exercise, a positive outlet for low employment, and much needed additional food for poor families.
