The Jenga Initiative: Refugee Health Education
The Jenga Initiative is a project conducted by members of the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Gamma Phi Chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma National Health Education Honorary in partnership with the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) in Wake County. The purpose of the project is to educate refugees about accessing the US healthcare system, practicing healthy behaviors, and becoming lay health educators in their community. The Jenga Initiative entails students presenting health education lessons to refugees from various countries. The program was developed as a Kate B. Reynolds and Albert Sweitzer fellowship project initiated by former NCCU Public Administration student Caroline Njogu (advised by Dr. LaVerne Reid) and Duke Nursing Student Julius Kibe (advised by Dr. Marva Price). These students partnered with the Public Health Education Department’s honor society under the leadership of its advisor, Dr. Seronda A. Robinson, to sustain the program. The Gamma Phi chapter of the honor society assumed responsibility of the program and received a sustainability grant from Albert Schweitzer to continue its efforts.
Eta Sigma Gamma got involved with the project in 2010 and is still conducting the sessions at this time. Initially, students from Eta Sigma Gamma presented one of four lessons once every other month. At that time, new refugees were required to attend mandatory community integration workshops that were held weekly for 3 months. When this requirement changed, the students adapted the program to condense the health information into one session because the audiences were not guaranteed to overlap in consecutive sessions. The sessions are now scheduled throughout the year at the discretion of USCRI’s annual events calendar. Attendance at the sessions ranges from ten to forty with attendees speaking up to eight different languages. As students present the information, they must allow frequent opportunities for interpretation. They also incorporate colorful images, gestures, and demonstrations to aid the refugees in understanding. Role-playing, verbal quizzes, and interpreter-assisted evaluation forms are used to assess the impact of the sessions. Evaluations suggest increased understanding of the topics presented. Additionally, participants have informally reported improved health behaviors, and workers at the USCRI have also suggested better health awareness among participating refugees.
The Jenga Initiative provides an essential experience for the refugees and students. It was noted that while refugees make up a substantial part of the American population, not much focus had been placed on the development of adequate health teaching programs for them upon arrival into this country. This project was developed to provide a peer health model for teaching new refugees essential aspects of primary healthcare as new arrivals in the Southeastern United States. In addition to assisting the refugees in accessing healthcare in the US and promoting healthy behaviors to decrease their risk of chronic diseases (namely diabetes and hypertension), this program benefits the students as well. This project provides a global experience for students and the opportunity for students to practice concepts learned in their public health education classes. Students from the department’s Global Health course have also attended the sessions, provided assistance as needed, and written reflections on this experience for their instructor.
This project advances the University’s strategic plan priority by providing a global learning experience that furthers students’ global engagement and cultural competence. The plan is to continue to remain on USCRI’s calendar to present this program at least one or two times a year. We also plan to incorporate research to identify and test best-practices for teaching foreign-speaking individuals.
-Submitted by Dr. Seronda A. Robinson
Link to article submitted by students in the Eta Sigma Gamma Vision newsletter:
http://etasigmagamma.org/content/uploads/2013/03/Vision_Fall-2011_Misra-edits1_10_5_11.pdf
Link to photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.264015623620011.64070.243172569037650&type=3