Fear of persecution forced Mohammed Shareef to flee Iraq for a better life in Australia.
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For Neo Molise from Lesotho in South Africa, it was the love of a woman, who is now his wife, that brought him to Australia almost three years ago.
But on Tuesday both were in agreement that the Welcome to Wollongong Hospital tour was definitely worth taking.
More than 30 students studying English at the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) at TAFE took the tour run by the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District multicultural health service in partnership with Wollongong Hospital, as part of Refugee Health Month.
ISLHD multicultural health services manager Leissa Pitts said the tour is part of a program which addresses access and health literacy issues for emerging communities.
Evaluations conducted since 2010 have indicated that the program is very successful in increasing awareness, confidence and knowledge among refugee and newly arrived communities of how to access and use health care services.
‘’Probably for most of us the hospital is a very complex and mystifying place so being able to introduce a refugee and new arrivals to the hospital demystifies and makes the hospital more accessible,’’ Ms Pitts said.
She said the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region has seen a high increase in new arrivals, with a significant number coming from Iraq and Syria.
‘’The new arrivals tend to have had lots of experiences of trauma, both physical and emotional,’’ Ms Pitts said.
‘’There is also a lot of chronic and complex health conditions that they would have received treatment for in the country of origin but while they’ve been in transition they haven’t been able to manage their conditions very well.
‘’We also get a lot of request for oral health (dental) and there’s also situations where clients have arrived having experienced war-related injury and trauma, so we are responding in a way that we best can to meet the needs of those individuals.’’
Ms Pitts added the hospital tour was also beneficial for health service personnel.
‘’It is important to put a face to the name. Refugees are not just a nebulous group out there, they are people like you and I. It is great for our staff to meet our new refugee arrivals and welcome them to this area.’’
Mr Shareef, speaking through an interpreter, said his family had been made to feel ‘’welcomed’’ by the community since moving to Wollongong almost two and a-half-years-ago.
Mr Shareef worked as an electrical engineer for the government in Iraq.
‘’But, I was getting a lot of harrassment and religious persecution so we had to leave,’’ he said.
‘’The government wanted me to give kick-backs to officials and I wouldn’t do that. It didn’t help that I also belonged to the minority religion (Sunni Muslim).’’
Mr Shareef said his dealings with Wollongong Hospital staff had been ‘’very pleasant’’.
‘’It is a very valuable tour because the fear of hospital is eliminated when you see how the different departments work and fit together,’’ he said.
‘’I think every refugee or immigrant should do a tour to understand where to go and feel more comfortable with the hospital staff.’’