Refugees and Rehabilitation: Our Fight Against the "Globalization of Indifference"

World War II (WW2) ultimately took the lives of 80 million people and sent another 11 million fleeing for their lives as refugees. In the aftermath of WW2, the world's leaders professed that 'never again' would we remain silent regarding the statelessness and hopelessness of victims of war and persecution. Tragically, the ravages of war and persecution continue to persist more than 70 years since the end of WW2 in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen, and Myanmar to name only a few. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), over 70 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced in 2019. These figures represent the highest estimates of absolute, and per capita, population displacement numbers ever recorded. Once a refugee and their family arrive in a host country, many have already been exposed to years of forced displacement, prolonged periods of unmet basic needs, exposure to physical trauma, alongside exposure to infectious and other diseases. In this presentation, we provide preliminary data from a large multi-country ERASMUS+ grant regarding the specific and unique competencies necessary for health and rehabilitation providers to be client-centered, effective and efficient in providing quality care to refugee populations in high-income settings.

Lunch will be provided. This event is part of Think Global, a weekly lecture series at the Duke Global Health Institute. It is free and open to the public.