We are your support system

My second week at Sewa Houston was filled with purposeful activity and community service initiatives. On Monday, I organized an acculturation assessment questionnaire in order to gauge assimilation disparities between the refugee children and their parents. Sathvika and I met with Rohit, our Refugee Empowerment mentor, and spoke about the refugee empowerment programming carried out by previous interns. We discussed creating an ESL class for the adults that could facilitated into the computer literacy classes. I also presented the acculturation assessment questionnaire to Rohit. We contemplated out loud about the reception of the Bhutanese beneficiary in creating a support-system program where parents and children can openly discuss assimilation issues. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to give a Career Day presentation to Alief ISD students on the importance of pursuing the higher education. While I felt that high school kids would benefit more from this kind of presentation, I received really positive signals from the students and teachers in the intermediary school. On Wednesday, I was able to implement the acculturation questionnaire and got positive feedback from my first case study. The subject of my first case study was an eleven year old Bhutanese boy born in a Nepali refugee camp. On Thursday, I participated in the immunization drive and assisted the public health team in garnering children. Overall, it was a wonderful second week at Sewa Houston.

A Pleasant Surprise at Los Arcos

“AMA! AMA!”

Under the small protection of the flyers on my head, I tried to keep up with the pace of Sagar, our Nepali translator, as she chased down any woman in sight. We were on a mission: to recruit as many women to join us at our final health camp. Our determination was lighted as we knocked door to door for the second week, advertising the topic of women’s health.

Last week we found ourselves alone in the Sewa apartment as the odds were against with a national convention and unfortunate bad weather dampened our hopes of anyone attending. Therefore, we were grateful as the sun shone high in the sky, encouraging women to come outside. The boundless energy that is packed in Sagar small body  enabled us to reach out to over forty apartments. Many women stopped to listen to her describe the health camps and explain the importance as I silently listened to the dynamic conversations. After thirty minutes of recruitment, we headed back to the apartment hoping to have convinced some women to come.

We waited patiently and suddenly small groups of women climbed up the stairs to the apartment. We were elated to see nine women sitting in the living room intently listening and interacting with Sagar as we presented them with information on mammograms, pap smears, HPV vaccines. In addition, a presentation by a HISD RN emphasized the importance of being active in communicating with the schools about their children’s health.

Toward the end of the session, there was a deeply moving moment in where all the women stated that they were highly interested in participating in our future health camps, because as mothers and grandmothers the know the importance of conserving the family’s health.

This concluded the health camp series for the summer, but as described above, the community at Los Arcos is very willing to participate in future camps. Honestly I can say that I had a pleasant surprise at Los Arcos as saw more than double of expected attendees walking down the stairs of the apartment.

Sagar informing women of importance of mammograms

The Hustle

Hello Sewanites! This week was an exciting beginning for all the interns as we began our various projects. On Monday, we got to meet the LEAD Houston high school interns who volunteer with SEWA as well. We worked on the children’s activities with the LEAD interns by sharing our ideas on what activities to have with the children at Los Arcos. We decided to get to know them by playing the name tag game and making cube boxes with different information about them. We made a food pyramid that they would have to stick the different classes of food on them. The LEAD interns were wonderful people to work with and were very efficient and competent.

        Working with the students at ALIEF ISD has been a wonderful experience. They are quite comfortable asking for assistance and are eager to learn. Tutoring them gives me so much joy knowing that I can leave an impact, which would direct them towards the right path in life. On Thursday, Texas Children’s Hospital had an immunization drive at ALIEF ISD. The GIH interns, LEAD Houston interns and the Americorps Vista all volunteered at this event. We had to get the children from their various classrooms and direct them to the rooms were they would be getting immunized. I found this drive very interesting and purposeful.

        Lastly, the public health interns came up with three health camp topics we could engage the people at Los Arcos. Nutrition and hygiene, women’s health and tobacco smoking were the three topics we came up with. We feel that implementing this would really make the refugees aware of their lifestyles and how to live a healthier one.

Thinking Forward

It’s nearly impossible for me to begin to wrap my head around where the minutes, hours, and days have been slipping to with the close of our third week at Sewa. Already the other interns and I have combined heads to envision a plan of execution for the activities and research we intend to carry out for the remainder of internship. The most daunting task of all, I think, is to ensure that all our programming and efforts will prove to be sustainable even after our time here. There’s no way to tell just how our plans may pan out after our departure-- or even over the next couple of weeks. However, it is my utmost priority to ensure that we strive within all our means to create programming that the Bhutanese community is genuinely interested in having made available to them, to widely include the community in all aspects of the project development, and finally that we set-up the framework and infrastructure for our plans to further develop and thrive sans our presence. 

I want our time here to reflect less of a “legacy” and more of a growing conscious for an under served community. The work that Sewa is doing is particularly novel in the sense that it as an organization is growing alongside the community, catering to its needs as it changes and fluctuates over the years. Though our time here with Sewa merely feels like minutes, I have faith the work that we will have conducted in this time will contribute to the evolving relationship Sewa has established with the community.

First Experience with SEWA

Having recently begun my summer internship at SEWA International, I've immediately immersed myself in Houston’s international community as well as used my internship as a compliment to what I’m studying in college-- International Relations and Psychology. These past two weeks alone have enabled me to see the real-world, practical aspects of what I have spent the past two semesters studying in a classroom.

When we went to Los Arcos, the apartment complex that houses the Bhutanese refugees, I was initially nervous; likewise, the refugees were shy when meeting us and didn't give us much attention. However, when we came back the second day, all us interns were thrust into this community and we grew fond of the people we were serving. Programs that I began developing in the office showed its true purpose when I interacted with the people that these projects would benefit. Between surveying the complex and talking to families, I sat in a computer class and helped a man who had never seen a computer in his life learn how to turn the power button on and how to click a mouse. I gave him a high five, and he smiled after he completed each level. This one to one interaction clearly motivated him to continue learning as well as slowly develop confidence that would enable him to succeed in the future.

Soon, the other interns and I began playing with the children. They ran around us in circles, begging us to play with them. One of the girls, Ashika, kept tugging on my shirt and asking me to follow her. In this moment, I realized that despite the unimaginable strife these kids experienced in they all had big dreams and even bigger hearts. Knowing that they've inevitably been cut short of opportunities due to their circumstances gave me all the more motivation to continue giving them my time, energy and support throughout this summer.

Every day, I find myself eager to start working. Being from Houston myself, I am emotionally connected to these experiences and people, and I feel obligated to give something back to the city that raised me. I’m thrilled to continue working at SEWA and even more determined to contribute something to the Bhutanese refugees.

Getting Inspired

The name of this internship is “Get Inspired Houston,” commonly referred to as GIH among the interns. However, until this week I didn’t realize that inspiration can come from the most ordinary situations. 

This week at Los Arcos, we held the first week of children’s activities for the Bhutanese children living in the community. After rounding up the kids from the apartments, we began the activities by having the kids make name tags for themselves. I noticed that one of the little girls was not writing anything down, and she did not speak to anyone. 

After a few minutes, she whispered something into her friend’s ear, but still did not speak to anyone else or pick up the crayons. All of the interns kept showing her what to do and tried to make her feel included, but she would shake her head “no” and watch her friend play. 

Our second activity was to make cubes out of paper, with the children coloring each square and writing something on it that describes them. Again, I tried to help the little girl color her paper, but she didn't seem to want to do it. Another girl who is a few years older came over to us and told me in English that when she first moved to America, she did not talk much either. She told me that the little girl I was playing with was probably just too nervous to speak or draw. 

After learning this, I understood the little girl’s behavior much more and wanted to help her feel comfortable. I wanted her to understand that what she was making was going to be a cube. I folded her paper into the correct shape, taped it for her, then tossed it up into the air. ...At last, she understood what I had been saying. A big smile spread across her face as she took the cube from my hands and began to toss it herself. Eventually, we started a game together where we would throw it back and forth. She even began to speak to me a little, even though she doesn’t know English.

After that day, I realized that patience is key to making positive change. Whether it is simply being patient when doing activities with children, or being patient implementing health programs for the refugee community, it takes time to make a difference.

Thinking Forward

There are but few things Millennials can share sentiment on—undoubtedly, of those being “real world” anxieties. As a rising senior at Smith College, the stress of moving back home for the first time in three years, learning how to brace Houston traffic again, and readjusting to a Texas lifestyle were merely petty in the face of starting at a new internship. However, my fears were quickly proven to be irrelevant when I was greeted with such warm energy and compassion for the cause upon my orientation with Sewa. Sewa, a non-profit grassroots NGO, works towards providing long-term assistance to Bhutanese refugees in the greater Houston area.  As a summer intern, my projects are focused in the Public Health sector where I, along with three other interns, will be collaborating on projects ranging from immunization clinics, women’s health camps, and surveying the community for health risks and needs.

This week, we were given the opportunity to read through the past interns’ end-of-term reports and also work in the community on-site at Los Arcos apartment complex.  I originally had my precautions about entering a space without being too culturally intrusive, but I was soon to learn how keen the refugees from Bhutan were to learn our names and practice their English on us. In the upcoming weeks, I hope to have more dialogue with the refugees and gain insight into their individual experiences. I’m incredibly excited to be working with the community and build the framework for sustainable projects with my fellow interns. Stay tuned for more updates on my intern journey!