Utah Health & Human Rights Project

Why donate $84?

A donation of $84 covers the cost of 9 hours of direct service to our clients.

For example, a new female client from Iraq comes in on Monday after calling and scheduling an appointment. She receives one hour of individual psychotherapy at UHHR with an interpreter, and afterwards also receives one hour of case management. On Thursday, she attends our psychiatric clinic where she meets with a volunteer RN to discuss medication management, followed by a visit with the U of U Psychiatric Resident. The next week, she has a massage therapy session where a volunteer massage therapist provides her with a 1.5-hour massage to help with pain management. The following month, an Occupational Therapy student from the U of U meets with her to teach her about using public transportation. Later that week, she participates in a healthy eating cooking class, with interpreters, sponsored by Molina Healthcare & Harmon’s Grocery.

$84 supports everything from medical to occupational to transitional needs, in all aspects of the client’s life, beyond a single day or moment. At UHHR your donation goes a long way and has a profound impact.

What We Do:

Utah Health and Human Rights (UHHR) provides direct services to refugees and asylum seekers who have survived severe war trauma and torture including individual and group psychotherapy, medical, and legal services. UHHR’s innovative, evidence-based, and holistic services promote health, dignity, and self-sufficiency and are guided by profound respect for the dignity and resiliency of the men, women and children we serve.

Ayana’s Story

UHHR serves many torture survivors who are unaccompanied refugee minors. These young refugees come to the U.S. without a parent or caregiver, and are placed with a foster family; living with the family while they navigate a new culture, life, and adolescence. Eventually to become self-sufficient as they reach adulthood.

Ayana is an unaccompanied refugee minor from Somalia who first came to UHHR for services in July 2015. She was having trouble with her foster placement, bursting into anger easily, and having difficulty connecting with her foster parents. This is her story of healing with Utah Health and Human Rights.

The young girl came into my office with a shy smile and beautiful wide eyes. When asked to tell me about herself she immediately looked down into her lap. She was hunched over so heavy; it appeared she might fall through the floor. I could see tears dripping onto the tops of her hands. The young girl, whose eyes were wide and bright just seconds before, melted into deep sadness. She was guarded and brought-up multiple times that she did not want to "talk about the past".

As she began to trust me, she started sharing positive memories of her home.  I have never seen her smile so brightly. Her eye contact improved drastically and she rarely had the emotional outbursts she once experienced. She opened up about both her biological and foster families, expressing a stronger connection to them all. Her English improved so much that we no longer needed an interpreter in our sessions. Ayana started taking the bus on her own to our sessions, never missing an appointment. Overall, Ayana showed that therapy was helping.

After ten months of building rapport, Ayana finally told me her trauma history. I didn't have to ask her to do so - she just stated that she had only told two other people this story before and felt like I needed to know. She described the kidnapping and subsequent torture that happened when she tried to flee the fighting in her home town to Kenya.

After sharing her story with me, Ayana showed an amazing amount of insight into what happened to her. She talked about how common rape is in her country and stated that since she had "no control" over what happened to her, it was not her fault. In front of me was no longer the fragile, tearful young girl, but a girl who was and continues to be the embodiment of resiliency. The young girl also said therapy wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be and when I asked her if she would be okay coming back to meet with me, she smiled with bright eyes and said, “that would be good”.

Survivors who come to UHHR are supported beyond just case management and resource connection. We provide for their mental, physical, and emotional health as they rebuild their lives in the US. UHHR works to bring trust and joy back into the lives of its clients whether they are unaccompanied refugee minors or survivors from any other background. Donations, no matter the amount, help us to provide these services and our clients to begin the healing process.