Providing Culturally Attuned Psychological First Aid to Rohingyan Refugees

Shamaila Khan, PhD, the Co-Director for the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology, was invited by the Islamic Medical Association of North America, or IMANA, on a humanitarian mission to the Rohingyan refugees in Bangladesh. The United Nations has described the military offensive against the Rohingyan people in Myanmar as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”  More than a half million refugees have fled the destruction of their homes and persecution in Myanmar since August 2017. Many have endured severe torture and seen their loved ones killed.  Cox Bazaar in Bangladesh is a site where refugees have congregated.  There they have set up makeshift camps, composed solely of bamboo sticks and tarp, with little access to aid, safe drinking water, food, shelter or healthcare.

  

Dr. Khan was recruited for the trip by IMANA for her expertise in Trauma/Disaster Relief-Psychological First Aid with a multi-culturally attuned framework, and was the sole psychologist in a group of physicians.  Following her work in the camps she received an award from IMANA, stating, “This award is presented to Dr. Shamaila Khan in grateful recognition of the invaluable services rendered during the Save Rohingya Humanitarian Mission, March 2018”. Noting the effectiveness of her work, she has been asked by IMANA to create a protocol for culturally sensitive mental health provision in similar contexts.