Ms. Punam Bhattarai arrived in Portland, Oregon on September 24, 2009 as a refugee with her parents and three siblings. On November 10, 2009, Ms. Bhattarai enrolled in the Refugee Vocational Training (RVT) Project for the Direct Caregiver course with IRCO, and finished the course in December 2009. The Direct Caregiver course is a training program that provides Ms. Bhattarai with the cultural, social, language, and knowledge skills to seek employment as a personal care assistant in the long term care, residential care, assisted living facilities, foster homes, and in-home care agencies. The skills she learned in the Direct Caregiver training not only enabled her to be eligible for a job but also to care for her own family members – a diabetic father and asthmatic mother.  

Ms. Bhattarai moved forward in her career by enrolling in a 150-hour Nursing Assistant training through IRCO’s RVT Project, which contracted with Cascade Medical School to have this Nursing Assistant theory done at the IRCO Skill Center in March 2010 and Nursing Assistant clinical done at Laurelhurst Village in May 2010. During this course, Ms. Bhattarai’s family situation worsened, and she nearly quit the class because of her family’s health. As a new refugee with good English skills, Punam is the main source of support for her family. The dedicated RVT staff assisted this client to realize her full potential and encouraged her to further her education. As a result, Ms. Bhattarai overcame her struggles by continuing with the Nursing Assistant training and completed the training in May 2010.
 

When Thay Ro first came to IRCO, he was placed in the pre-lit class of the Pre-Employment Training project after the initial language assessment. This was due to his limited years of formal education and his inability to answer basic questions such as “what country are you from?” 

23 years old and single, Thay Ro’s intake documents indicated that he spoke Burmese, Karin and Thai. Growing up near the Burma-Thai boarder, he was 10 years old when he entered a monastery and then spent close to 9 years in a Thai refugee camp. This gave him the ability to read and write in Thai.

Within two months of class time in the PET project, Thay Ro’s ability to recognize and write the English alphabet, copy personal information into forms and respond to simple oral directions was well developed. His Pre-Lit instructor described him as an individual who had outstanding enthusiasm & teamwork displaying great individual effort and ability to follow directions.

By the end of the first PET session, Thay Ro was ready to move from pre-lit to level 1 even more confident because of the skills he gained. In level 1, he continued to make great strides in speaking and listening skills while his reading skills were developing. His level 1 instructor describes his comprehension abilities as so well developed that he is able to respond to questions without asking for repetition or clarification.

Currently Thay Ro is in level 2 and is making great progress in his pre-employment skills and language fluency, firmly set in the path of self-sufficiency with the help of PET instructors.

Hakim is an Ethiopian client of IRCO in his fifties who has lived in the US for many years and is uninsured. He is one of the seniors who attend the senior workshops and lunch sessions at Africa House every Thursday. In April of 2009, he attended the Africa House health education workshop on hepatitis B and HIV. After the workshop, Hakim asked about getting general screening for an evaluation of his health. Mohamed, the community health educator, referred him to a low cost community clinic in downtown Portland where he received a physical and now gets help from the clinic. He later came back to Africa House to follow up with Mohamed on how it was important for him to get screened and know his status. He showed appreciation for the existence of the program at Africa House and stated that is crucial for the African community in Oregon. He also promised to inform the rest of community members about the program and services offered by the health program at Africa House.

Tags: africa house | Health Program | IRCO | news | Senior | Success Story

To Whom it May Concern:

Our names are John and Lonnie Reedy, we have been married for 25 years and have six beautiful children. During our marriage we have been blessed with three healthy children and good health ourselves. My husband and I chose many years ago that I would stay at home and raise these three children while John worked outside the home. John has always been able to cover all our financial needs. His job supplied all the income we needed. His job also afforded us the privilege of adding to our family by three. 

In December of 2009 John lost his job of 20 plus years. We were then faced with no income of our own and no employment in the near future. I too found myself having health issues that were a huge surprise to me.  I was diagnosed with pancreatic and uterine cancer. We felt that life was hard, but not overwhelming until then. We have since that time found ourselves in social service offices for help with our basic needs...ie food stamps, free school lunches, and help with our utilities.

Considering all that we are going through as a family I have to say this has been one of the best weeks in our adult lives. I was able to have a complete hysterectomy with the prognosis as positive and no chemotherapy needed. Later this week I had the pleasure of meeting, with Linda Nguyen at Asian Family Center, that meeting paid my power and gas bill. It was not a humiliating experience I expected it to be. I never thought in my life that I would ever have to actively seek out help to pay my utility bills, but I did.

I want to tell whoever it is that made this possible for my family how grateful I am and how this makes it possible for my husband and I to sleep easier. I have never been treated with more respect and compassion than Ms. Nguyen at IRCO’s Asian Family Center treated us. This is probably the most humbling experience I have ever experienced. I would ask that these kinds of services to continue to be funded. We are living in times that families are in places the never dreamed they would be in, nor prepared to be in . And it is agencies like this one that will enable my family to pay the mortgage next month and the months that follow.

Thank you so much for all you do for Portland families.

John and Lonnie Reedy

Tags: Energy Specialist | IRCO | Success Stories