“There are a lot of challenges in coming to a new culture,” said Su Phipps, program director for Healthy Women, Healthy Futures-Oklahoma.
About 28 women from the Burmese refugee community in Tulsa have recently graduated from 14-week classes organized by the Community Service Council. It was designed to help them and their families live healthy lives in the U.S.
“This is a very different culture. The language is very different so there is a feeling of isolation.”
The number of students identified as Burmese in Jenks Public Schools has exploded from 70 to about 1,200 over the past decade. Estimates of the Burmese community in Tulsa are around 7,000 people.
“These are really lovely people,” said Barbara Cargill, peer educator coordinator for Healthy Women, Healthy Futures-Oklahoma. “I have a real heart for them. They’ve gone through so much to get here.”
The women who attended the CSC program went through 70 hours of education in promoting health, emotional wellness, protection from domestic violence, financial management, literacy, child development and parenting practice.
The classes were organized and taught through a program of the Community Service Council’s Healthy Women, Healthy Futures-Oklahoma, Center for Community School Strategies and Sprouts Child Development.
“It has been in the planning stage for several years,” Phipps said. “It was important for the success of this program for us to have educators from the Burmese community.
They could better identify and understand the challenges that these women have in coming to this country.”
The Community Service Council has been a nonprofit leader in Tulsa’s community planning since 1941. CSC works with partners in the community to address issues in health, social, education and economic opportunities.
The goal of the program targeting Burmese women is to create awareness and education about how to manage health, understand child development, navigate public education and access available community resources.
“This program is as comprehensive as we can make it,” Cargill said. “These are people who were terribly motivated to come here. They are motivated to learn ways to help their families.”
The teachers in the program, bilingual (English and Zomi) educators, are called “Sia Mah Nu,” which translated is “woman who teaches.”
Lun Dim is one of the peer educators who come from Tulsa’s Burmese community.
“This is very helpful for women from our country,” Dim said. “It is a great experience for women coming to the U.S.
“It is good to have teachers from our country. We have experience. The more we know about the experience of coming here the better it is.”
The peer educators formed small groups of about eight women each and led 14-week classes. The first class graduated in December.
“I teach our peer educators in English and then they teach the class in Zomi,” said Cargill. “These are women that are in that community. These are people who become another source of information in the community. It doesn’t end with this class.”
The health education aspects of the program are modeled on Healthy Women, Healthy Families-Oklahoma, which provides education and skills to create behavior changes that improve the overall health of nonpregnant women and their families.
“A lot of the women want to know more about education and how to support their child in education,” said Dim. “They are also interested in knowing more about healthy snacks and food for their children.”
Teaching familiarity with the public education system, and how to navigate the schools system, is modeled on a program of the Center for Community School Strategies, which uses a peer education system.
“When we first started working with this community, it was important to learn the needs of that population,” said Phipps. “It was important to help them learn more about health and emotional health and domestic violence and how best to navigate the public school system. And, our educators helped us to translate these materials into the Zomi language. In the future, we hope to reach out to men, as well.”
Research shows several advantages of the community peer educator role, Phipps said.
These educators, in this case bilingual members of Tulsa’s Burmese community, can be a bridge to people and resources. They can more easily communicate with persons like themselves. Knowing how their neighbors live and think helps peer educators work effectively with community members.
That leads to improving access to health care, schools and community resources.
“Honestly, it is a real blessing to work with these moms,” said Phipps. “They are really wonderful people.”
Src:>>>TULSA WORLD
