Multilingual Health Education Project

By migrant and refugee women, for migrant and refugee women

The Multilingual Health Education project provides health information to migrant and refugee women in their community language or in plain English. Information in provided by our team of Health Educators, who aim to empower migrant and refugee women with knowledge about health and the health system in Australia.

We have a team of 1 Health Outreach Officer and 5 Health Educators, who have been trained to deliver the health sessions to the community. This diverse team is looking forward to working with the Indian community, Vietnamese community, South Sudanese and African community and Karen community.

Topics can include:

Physical health and wellbeing
Mental health and wellbeing
Occupational health and safety
Women’s reproductive health
COVID 19

We are looking forward to reaching groups of women from migrant backgrounds. If you are interested in hosting or attending a session, please contact us.

Kate Diamond-Keith| Regional Consultant
Lead – Diversity and Inclusion
T (03) 5322 4100
E kate@whg.org.au

This project is supported by the Victorian Government.

Read the report here:

Word version PDF version

Learning from lived experience: Mental health impacts of COVID-19 on migrant and refugee women in the Grampians region Report

In 2021 and 2022, Women’s Health Grampians undertook research into the experiences of inequalities by women from migrant and refugee backgrounds in the Grampians region during the COVID-19 pandemic. Migrant and refugee women experience health inequality and poorer health outcomes, including mental health, compared to Australian-born women. To take action to address this health inequality, we must look at how gender inequality intersects with discrimination and racism experienced by migrant and refugee women and how this leads to a variety of health inequality impacts, including access to mental health services and supports.

Part of Women’s Health Grampians’ Health Equality for All project, this resource aims to share migrant and refugee women’s experience of the pandemic, together with actions that can be implemented by Women’s Health Grampians’ partners thought the Communities of Respect and Equality (CoRE) Alliance.

Left Behind: Migrant and Refugee Womens’ Experiences of COVID-19 Report

The pandemic has exposed the gendered nature of disaster – the disproportionate impact on women at work, at home and in community. The diverse needs of Victorian women must be at the heart of all disaster planning, response and recovery decision making. If we don’t want to leave migrant women and children behind in the race to full vaccination and to create equity in healthcare, we need a permanent multi-lingual health education workforce. It just makes sense.

The report found over 90% of migrant and refugee women experienced multiple hardships as a consequence of COVID-19, including financial stress caused by unemployment and reduced income, housing insecurity, family separation and isolation from communities as well as discrimination in accessing government support, increased hours of unpaid care work, and difficulty accessing healthcare. The combined impact has left mental and physical toll.