Kamana Khadka
Tucson,
Arizona is home to about 1,400 Bhutanese; one
of the newest refugee communities in America.
Among many health issues faced by Bhutanese who come from fairly
underserved and sub-standard living conditions in refugee camps in Nepal, poor
nutrition related health concerns remain one of the most voiced by Bhutanese
residing in Arizona. Bhutanese have not only shown keen interest but have actively
participated in establishing a healthy lifestyle in a new country.
On June 29,2013, I was asked to facilitate Bhutanese Community Health Promoter Training with
Bhutanese Mutual Assistant Association for Tucson (BMAAT) in partnership with
the Pima County Health Department and Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public
Health, University of Arizona. My role as
a facilitator was to emphasize on cultural sensitivity. Having worked extensively with the Bhutanese in Phoenix and also
on Healthy People 2020 funded Nutrition Project in 2011, I was excited
to share my experiences.
Learning
about the Food Plus program was the bittersweet health disparities moment for
me. Food Plus, is a USDA food program
that provides emergency food boxes in Tucson to low income mothers, children,
and the elderly on a monthly basis.
According to what was shared in the presentation, the emergency food
boxes that are circulated contain pasta, milk, flour, canned vegetables, beans,
cheese, beef stew, and juice for the most part.
Let me tell you, majority of the food that are included in these
emergency food boxes are not only new to the Bhutanese and might never be used
by them, but delivering beef stew, for instance, to a Bhutanese household, is
very offensive.
Cow
is sacred in Hindu religion.
Majority
of the Bhutanese are Hindus.
I
doubt that majority of the food items included in those emergency food boxes
would be used by refugees and immigrant population.
Don’t get me wrong. I truly appreciate the thought behind the
emergency food boxes and commend USDA Food Programs for being consistent with
their services. Yes, the food that goes
into those emergency food boxes solely run from donations from the public. I believe that one of the main reasons why
USDA Food Program have been able to consistently provide Food Plus/Emergency
food boxes to the Tucson residents for years is because the donors strongly
believe that by donating food they are able to fill the much needed gap in
their community. The fact is, our
communities have changed and so have the choices of food consumption.
If the USDA Food Program would inform and
provide demographics data to their faithful donors, I believe that there will
be more variety in the food donations.
Perhaps the donations can actually benefit the ones in need and it will
not be an addition to the list of already provided services to
minority communities that is a pretty clear indication of “checking the box
service” provisions. If nothing is done to change the current
trends of collecting food donations, Food Plus will continue contributing
towards health disparities in America’s attempt to eliminate health
inequalities.
My health disparities comment regarding
food content in the emergency food boxes is no reflection of the Pima County
Health Department staff or the excellent work blossoming in Tucson,
Arizona. I was very impressed with the
group lead by Dr. Karen Heckert. This
group has stretched a small grant of $5,000 to the limits. The quality of their Community Trainer
Program is at the same level, if not more, with some of the heavily funded
projects. Dr. Heckert has more than 30
years of experience working globally with some of the renowned organizations
such as WHO, USAID, John Hopkins University etc. Currently Dr. Heckert is with the University
of Arizona and is doing what she does best – bridging theory and practice as
public health practitioner in academia.
I had an instant connection with
Dr. Heckert as she greeted me with a warm “Namaste” on the phone and she also
has traveled to my birthplace Kathmandu, Nepal.
I would also like to take this moment to
congratulate 11 BMAAT Community Health Promoters – Purna, Ram, Santa, Keshab,
Bishnu, Indra, Purna, Chadra, Mousami, Sumitra, Jamuna, and Yamuna who
successfully completed their training on Nutrition & Diabetes Education. Staff of the Pima County Heath Department –
Soraya, Gabe, Kasey, and Lilly were absolutely amazing and of course Dr. Karen
Heckert and her 'super intern' Kristin without whom this project would not have
been such a tremendous success.
Please join me in congratulating the
team.
I hope to join them soon for the outreach
planning.
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