Refugee & immigrant women from Columbia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Moldova, Rwanda, Somalia & Vietnam attended Refugee Women's Network National Health Promoter Leadership Training
Refugee Women’s Network is a national non-profit organization created by women, for women, that focus on enhancing refugee and immigrant women’s strength, skills, and courage, through leadership training, education and advocacy to promote independence, self-sufficiency, and networking among its participants. Its programs include leadership development, microenterprise, health promotion and advocacy. Refugee Women’s Network is governed and staffed by refugee and immigrant women from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. For more information on RWN, go to www.riwn.org
RWN Hosts National Health Promoter Leadership Training
On November 12, 2007 bilingual/multicultural refugee and immigrant women gathered at the serene, wooded Timber Ridge Conference Center in Atlanta, GA for a five day intensive training of trainers.
The National Health Promoters Leadership training brought together 13 women from 9 countries living in 9 different states in the United States. The goal of the National Health Promoters Leadership Training was to share the Health Promoter Leadership Program (HPLP) model developed by the Refugee Women’s Network (RWN), with a national audience, so that organizations serving refugee and immigrant population can replicate the HPLP model in their own communities. The Health Promoters Leadership Program was recognized by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation, in 2006, as an honorable mention for best collaborative health education model. In 2008-2009, the RWN will make mini-grants to 5 organizations across the United States to replicate the HPLP model.
Overview of Health Promoter Leadership Program
Refugee Women’s Network’s (RWN) Health Promoters Leadership Program provides refugee & immigrant women with knowledge and tools to act as bicultural, bilingual bridges between the health care system and the refugee & immigrant families in their own communities. These bicultural, bilingual women are known as Health Promoters. Health Promoters participate in 40 hours of training on health issues that are pertinent to their communities. RWN uses the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of health, which includes physical, social, mental and cultural well-being. Therefore, the participants learn about varieties of topics like nutrition, hygiene, mental health, reproductive health, physical health and adaptation of ethnic food to meet their current caloric needs, to name just a few. They also receive training on leadership and community outreach skills that are based on Paulo Freire’s popular education model, which emphasizes participatory learning and sharing.
After receiving the training, Health Promoters provide 12 hours of community education each month reaching 100-300 adults and 40- 90 children. On top of that, the Health Promoters meet every month for 3 hours of continuing education where they share comments and concerns from the community members and learn new information, which they are able to take back to their communities.
RWN has piloted the Health Promoters Leadership Program in Atlanta refugee community for 3 years in partnership with Women Watch Africa and the DeKalb County Board of Health. A comprehensive evaluation conducted this year revealed that participants reduced fat and sugar in meal preparation, increased water, fruit, and vegetable consumption which helped them in losing and maintaining weight loss. Participants were able to significantly lower cholesterol and blood sugar counts. For example, one community member’s cholesterol was 370 and blood sugar 200. After 2 months, they were lowered to 270 and 120, respectively. The evaluation also showed that community members were more likely to adapt and continue change in their behavior and attitudes when the Health Promoters themselves were modeling healthy behaviors.
Many refugee women have become more open about discussing depression and other mental health issues. In some cases the Health Promoters have been able to help the women change their lifestyles to become more active, more healthy, and adapt to the new environment. In other cases, the Health Promoters have referred refugees to professional services, including providing transportation. In all cases, the Health Promoters reported significant improvement and increased happiness and better adjustment on the part of the refugee women.
Taking it National
The five day training of trainers brought together the educational aspect as well as the experiential aspect of health promotion. Workshops included the components of the health promoter program as well as leadership development, taken from RWN’s national leadership training program. Each participant received a copy of the “Points of Wellness: Partnering for Refugee Health and Well-being Toolkit” and RWN’s Health Promoters leadership training materials. The participants also received training on writing proposals for grants, project planning and evaluation, forming successful health collaboratives etc. The cohort of trainees was very knowledgeable and experienced women. There were program directors, program coordinators, case managers, nurses and health workers. The training module was interactive where participants and trainers learnt from each other. On one of the evenings, the participants had the opportunity to hear from a panel of Health Promoters who are currently working in the Atlanta community area and interact with them.
Next Steps
For the next phase of programming, RWN will solicit proposals from agencies that participated in the training for trainers and award mini-grants to five agencies, in a competitive process, to replicate the Health Promoters Leadership Program in their communities. RWN will provide technical assistance to the recipients of the mini-grants, in-person and otherwise. RWN is available to provide consulting services to any community based organization interested in building its capacity serving to serve health and healthcare needs of immigrants and refugees in their communities. Interested agencies should contact RWN. Participating agencies will be able to use RWN’s website for networking and technical assistance.
