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.