Building capacity in nutrition & diabetes education in the Bhutanese refugee community in Tucson

Bhutanese refugees are among the largest resettled groups in Pima County, Arizona. Resettled refugees suffer from a variety of health conditions following their long residence in refugee camps and as they make the significant adjustment to living in the United States, including nutrition related diseases.  This community-led project aimed to continue and expand a multi-phased capacity building education model and partnership led by the University of Arizona Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health in collaboration with the Bhutanese Mutual Assistance Association of Tucson (BMAAT) and the Pima County Health Department (PCHD).   Project goals were: 1) to increase the Bhutanese refugee community’s capacity to address their own health needs by training 12 BMAAT Community Health Promoters, 2) to increase access to health information & services for the Bhutanese through nutrition & diabetes education and outreach, and 3) to increase the cultural capacity of mainstream health service providers to serve the refugee community.  A comprehensive and culturally tailored curriculum was developed and evaluation tools were tested to measure program progress and outcomes. Among the program results were: 12 trained BMAAT Community Health Promoters, 8 community outreach sessions with 200 adult Bhutanese, increased enrollment in PCHD’s WIC, Food Plus, and Health Start programs, and the new role for the BMAAT Community Health Promoters as reliable & informed human resources.  This project will be sustained through the ongoing university-community partnerships. The model will be replicated with other refugee groups through the Refugee Integrated Service Providers Network (RISP-Net).