By: Melanie Gilbert
LOWELL — Over the past two years, almost 500 Afghan asylum seekers have settled in Lowell.
They joined a diverse community of refugees including Cambodian, Haitian, Ukrainian and others who fled their homelands due to war, persecution or human rights abuses, and the Lowell Community Health Center has been there to provide integrated, multidisciplinary care to these survivors.
On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan presented nearly $2.8 million in federal funding to LCHC’s Greater Lowell Afghan refugee services. The money will help the Metta Health Center, located within the main center on Jackson Street in Downtown Lowell, to deliver culturally tailored, integrated, trauma-informed and evidence-based primary care and behavioral health care services to 125 patients over three years.
“We could speak for days about the care and compassion, and the culturally competent environment that LCHC has set up here,” Trahan said in opening remarks to a panel of medical, mental health and legal providers who partner with the nonprofit to provide wraparound services to the refugees.
“You’re already equipped to understand the unique needs of a new population coming into our city,” she said.
Metta was one of the first health centers of its kind in the United States, and is one of 24 organizations across the country to be awarded Services to Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It was the only New England site selected.
Before the roundtable, Trahan walked the bright halls of Metta meeting with staff such as Patient Care Navigator Mohammad Bilal, who thanked Trahan for the funding support that he said was critical to continuing the outreach mission.
“Many people call us,” Bilal told Trahan. “They say, ‘Can I see a doctor today?’ And I say, ‘Yes, sure. We have spot for you here.’”
Making space for, listening to and caring for people who have suffered both visible and invisible trauma is the kind of holistic care Metta provides, said Dr. Robert Marlin, chief of the center.
He told Trahan about a woman refugee who suffers from crippling anxiety and panic attacks from her time working as an interpreter for the U.S. government in Afghanistan.
“Her helicopter was shot down, and she sustained injuries to her upper body, had many surgeries and continues to have reduced mobility and chronic pain,” Marlin said. “She also has chronic pain from wearing body armor. (Her injuries) have made it difficult for her to care for her children.”
The key to recovery, he said, was holistic care that spans from the exam room and into the community, and which may include access to legal help with asylum claims, permanent residency and potential pathways to citizenship.
Anita Sharma, executive director of the PAIR Project, picked up on Marlin’s thread, explaining to Trahan how asylum claims based on torture are hard to prove, and for that reason, require collaboration across medical specialties like what is provided at Metta. PAIR, which stands for Political Asylum/Immigration Representation, provides free immigration services to indigent asylum seekers and detained immigrants.
“There are over 70,000 asylum seekers in Massachusetts,” Sharma said. “It is nearly impossible to navigate the immigration system. The 12-page forms are only available in English, and the burden (of proof) is very high.”
She described how the kind of torture that leaves no record of harm is exactly the kind of proof the asylum courts demand.
“So it comes down to their direct testimony,” Sharma said. “We need medical to meet with our clients to help us document and corroborate that, yes, this is someone who has suffered torture. To write those professional affidavits. We’re so thankful for this partnership. I couldn’t meet many of my cases without the people at this table. It really is a community effort.”
Trahan thanked the participants for sharing their work with her, but also asked that they tell her what challenges remain, and “what else needs to happen?”
“We want to make sure that we are setting people up to thrive,” Trahan told the gathering of 20 professionals.
“I am here to listen,” she continued. “I want to hear about your experience — where the obstacles and challenges are. What are some of the best practices so that we can understand that as we continue investing.”
John Moses, of Chelmsford, worked on family reunification with Trahan’s District Director Sara Khun Leng during the 2021 Afghan evacuation. Leng is a refugee herself, immigrating to the U.S. at 5 years old from war-torn Cambodian. She lived in two refugee camps before settling in Chicago, and eventually making her way to Lowell.
“Reunification cases are just really difficult,” Moses told Trahan. “They have a lot of mental health needs. What I would like to see is more mental health resources around supporting the volunteer system. We’ve all gone through some stuff.”
He said family reunifications were happening in Harvard, Concord, Chelmsford and Lowell, and thanked her for the funding and the opportunity to share his experience with her.
Trahan told the group, which included dozens of health care staff who crowded into the room to take part in the check presentation, that she appreciated them for “taking the time to educate me on what needs to be done.”
“I have a lot of gratitude for what you do,” she said.
