Sewa International USA Helps Refugees

HOUSTON: Houston is home to many refugees from around the world. Adjusting to this country can be very overwhelming in many ways, especially for children. Sewa International combined its synergies with Alief ISD, Texas Children Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine to provide wholesome acclimatization for refugees and their school-going children. Right from helping the children with their school to getting them up to date with their immunization and then helping them direct their energy towards helping fellow members of the refugee community, Sewa has been there every step of the way to help the refugee children get integrated with the mainstream.

The SLI is a month-long summer school session offered by Alief ISD for children in grades 4-11. It provides students, primarily from the refugee community, with more opportunities to help them learn the English language. Often times, the refugee students are learning the English language solely from school and need more assistance. High school-aged children have an especially difficult time with language comprehension. In collaboration with Alief ISD, the Sewa Houston summer interns volunteered twice a week in the elementary and high school-level classrooms during the month of June in hopes of maximizing the school’s efforts in acclimating the students to the English language and academics. When classes resume, Sewa will begin implementing a new volunteer service program for the regular school year.

Sewa has also encouraged the refugee population to become more health conscious. The organization’s partnership with Baylor College of Medicine has provided many new contacts in the non-profit community that is able to better assist families with medical related questions. With immunizations being a requirement for schools and important for the quality of life, Sewa and Texas Children’s Hospital co-sponsored two immunization drives in the Alief-ISD area and the Los Arcos apartment community of Houston. Alief ISD was able to provide classrooms in order to successfully tend to the Alief summer program students and the nearby community. Emma Welch, a Public Health intern and Coordinator for the event said, “The first drive at Alief was a great way for the interns and volunteers to see the drive in action, and make us more prepared for Sewa events to follow.” The Alief immunization drive proved to be successful in helping the local community.

The final immunization drive in the Los Arcos apartments proved to be more challenging. Unruly weather caused the mobile clinic to be out of commission after heavy rain had broken the awning, which posed a safety hazard and immobilized the immunization bus. While forced to wait for repairs, Sewa was able to host a free clothing drive for the Los Arcos community that had been scheduled for that day as well. Children and families in the waiting area received refreshments before and after their appointments in the mobile clinic. In spite of extenuating circumstances, we were still able to immunize over 20 children in the community and those who were unable to receive immunizations have been directed to upcoming Texas Children’s Hospital dates and locations in the area. Both events have been able to vaccinate over 100 children in total.

Sewa strives to help refugees, specifically the Bhutanese, become acclimated to their new surroundings in the United States. Sewa is currently looking for high school and college students who would like to volunteer with the refugee community.

For further information visit www.sewahouston.org or email at houston@sewausa.org.