Uniting Vic Tas team with participants at the conlcusion of the WOMHEn project.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Accessing health care in Australia is already difficult, but it’s even harder when English isn’t your first language and you don’t know where to go for help.
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This is the case for many migrant and refugee women in Shepparton, and in the past three years, one project has been working to address the barriers they face when accessing health-related information.
Wednesday, July 24 marked the official end of the project.
Uniting staff and WOMHEn project participants watch the videos concluding the project.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
The Workforce of Multilingual Health Educators network project, known as WOMHEn, was funded by the Victorian Department of Health and was a collaboration between the wider Victorian Women’s Health Services and the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health.
Women’s Health Goulburn North East was one of the health services that received this funding and partnered locally with two services to facilitate the project, with Uniting Vic Tas Shepparton being one of them.
In the project, Uniting Vic Tas health educators, who are fluent in the languages of the multicultural communities in the area, collaborated with women in those communities to understand what health topics were a priority for them.
From that, they were able to facilitate culturally appropriate health sessions in the women’s first language with key in-language resources from MCWH.
The sessions covered a wide range of crucial health topics, including how to access local health services, sexual and reproductive health screenings, diabetes management, cancer awareness, mental health support, family violence prevention, and maternal and child health care.
Shakilla Naveed was one of the health educators, working with local Arabic and Afghan communities.
She said the project started in 2021 following the need for multicultural women to receive accurate and supportive information around the COVID-19 pandemic for their families.
However, further consultation with the women involved in the initial stages of the project revealed there was a clear need for it when it came to other health information.
“Refugee and CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) communities come from their country with no English, so there’s a language barrier, and it is hard to communicate to services, so that’s why they isolate themselves at home,” Mrs Naveed said.
“They just stay home and don’t care because in countries like where I come from, Afghanistan, we don’t have that kind of facilitated support.
“The women just look after the family and the children, and they think that is enough, unless they get very, very sick and go to the doctor, so we empower them to take that step to find support.”
Unfortunately, funding for the project has come to an end.
However, health educators from Uniting such as Bhakti Dhamala are hopeful that more funding to continue the project will soon be announced.
“It should be consistent and ongoing, as it changes the lives of the women involved and changes the way they live, builds up competence in society and reduces the friction between the family and service provider,” Mrs Dhamala said.
“It is really important, and I want to emphasise it should be consistent and growing as new arrival refugees and migrants keep coming to Australia.”
In the meantime, the team continues to be active on WattsApp group chats where women can request interpreting assistance or ask questions.
Here’s what some of the participants from the project had to said about WOMHEn.
Gul Zewar
“Before, I didn’t know much about health. We didn’t know about sexual health, cervical screen tests, bowel cancer tests, breast cancer tests, because we didn’t have that information.
“Since we started the project, we know how to seek help.”
Sarah Mazambi
“The project has helped a lot, and it was wonderful because women are going to appointments and have enough information about their health.
“I have more confidence to approach a doctor and healthcare services, but the problem is the language barrier. With Uniting, because they did this, they can provide us with someone who can help us with interpreting our people.”
Shakila Qurbani
“Since I came to Shepparton, I worked with Shakilla (Naveed) very closely, and she empowered us on how to have a happy and healthy life in Australia and how to connect with each other.”
Listen to what some of the health educators from WOMHEn had to say about the project below.
