Press play above to hear co-executive director, Esther Hsieh
Our active campaign is now closed, but donations can still be
made to support our clinic.
You can help
We need to expand the services of our family and pediatric clinic so that we can take care of the refugees settling in our, and neighbouring, communities. But we need your help.
Privately sponsored refugees don't receive the same resources as government sponsored refugees. For example, government sponsored refugees who arrive in BC are taken to the refugee health clinic in Vancouver for an initial checkup and can remain patients for up to one year. In contrast, when a privately sponsored refugee needs to see a doctor, they face language barriers, uncertainity in how to navigate our health care system and the same shortage of family doctors that you or I do.
The Umbrella Multicultural Health Co-op is uniquely positioned to address this.
We are a non-profit cooperative that has been providing medical services to immigrant communities since 2010. We deliver health care using a cross-cultural health broker model. A cross-cultural health broker (CCHB) is a bilingual health worker who is from the patient's community and also understands the cultural differences in how health care is delivered in Canada. This can make a real difference in the appropriateness of the care provided.
As a co-op, all of our patients have the option of becoming members and this means that they work with us to improve the health of themselves and their community. Our Board of Directors is able to nurture this empowering health care environment as they have lived experience as refugees and immigrants themselves.
Currently our family practice and pediatric clinic offer physician services which are facilitated by a CCHB from Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, India or Sudan who collectively speak Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Spanish, Egyptian-Arabic, Juba-Arabic, Punjabi and Hindi.
With many privately sponsored refugees arriving now, we know that a lot of newcomers need urgent health care, and we're mobilizing so that all refugees who are arriving to our community in the coming months, will get the care they need.
Please help with your tax deductable donation.
We need your help so that we can increase our clinic hours (located in New Westminster, BC) to meet the needs of the many refugees coming to our, and neighbouring communities. Currently we can only afford to keep our clinic open part time because we take the time needed to meet the unique health and social needs of our patients and this makes our clinic more costly to run.
With $25,000 we can cover the cost of opening 1 additional clinic day per week for a year
With $50,000 we can cover the cost of staying open 2 additional clinic days per week for a year
With +$100,000 we can continue to expand our services for all new comers who need our services for a year
All donations will receive a charitable tax receipt
Listen to and read our campaign coverage in the media:
The Early Edition, CBC Radio One
Redeye, Vancouver Co-op Radio
CKNW News
http://www.cknw.com/2015/12/22/non-profits-look-to-fill-gap-in-refugee-healthcare-coverage/
