Dr. Sophia Banu’s continuous efforts to support refugees has led to her and her students’ to participate in FAM Houston, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to empower women who are mainly refugees and immigrants in Houston.

While most of the women are originally from Congo, the FAM welcomes immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers of all backgrounds.

Banu, an associate professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, first learned about FAM through women she knew from working in the refugee community: Shirin Herman and Rev. Hannah R. Terry, both of whom are on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Sophia Banu and students from the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences work at FAM Houston.

According to their website, FAM is made up of six different programs. Banu is involved with Shamba Ya Amani, or Farm of Peace.

• Shamba Ya Amani (Farm of Peace): Feeding the community, both body and soul
• Pamoja: Pairing newcomer and Houston families to form relationships and engage in mutual learning
• Congregational partners: Providing pathways for faith communities to discern a vision of ministry with their neighbors
• Storytelling: Inviting neighbors into the practice of personal and communal storytelling
• Epworth League: Providing community, fostering discipleship and equipping leaders among 18-35 year-olds to love their neighbors and serve God and their Church
• Women’s Empowerment Group (WEG): Creating a brave space for resettled refugee women to find community and access resources

Banu is the founder and director of the Clinic for International Trauma Survivors (CITS), which includes the Alliance Wellness Clinic as a rotation sites for psychiatry residents and medical students at Baylor.

The Alliance Wellness Clinic is a free clinic for refugees, asylum-seekers, parolees and underserved populations. In 2021, Shirin and Rev. Hannah contacted Banu to help some the women in the group who were facing mental health issues. She saw a patient for evaluation and began treatment. During one of their telehealth visits, Banu noticed the beautiful scenery when her patient told her she was working on the farm. She noticed that the patient seemed brighter and happy in her surroundings.

Curious to find out more about the farm, Banu scheduled an in-person follow-up appointment at the farm. She learned that each refugee is given a plot of land to plant whatever they want to sell or take home. The women taught Banu about African plants and offered her okra and tea they grew themselves.

“The farm was out of this world. The horticulture therapy, plant therapy and being out in the open is amazing and therapeutic for the patients,” Banu said. “Since then, there’s no turning back.”

Impressed by the farm’s impact, Banu has subsequently arranged for medical students to participate in rotations at Shamba Ya Amani. While the language barrier can be a challenge for incoming refugees and migrants, Alliance has a language network of more than 80 languages, providing interpreters for most patients, she said. FAM also has a network of interpreters available to the community.

“My time working with (Banu) was one of my favorite parts of training at Baylor. I learned so much from (her), particularly regarding cultural humility, and I can’t wait to take that knowledge and apply it in residency,” said Dr. Riley Longtain, a former medical student at Baylor. Longtain is a current resident at MGH McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency Program in Massachusetts.

Dr. Riley Longtain completed a rotation at FAM Houston during her Baylor training.

While Banu does not speak the languages that most Congolese people speak, she speaks many southeast Asian languages including Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Tibetan and Bengali, which has been beneficial for Alliance patients, she said.

Medical students who have worked at CITS and have completed a rotation at FAM learned that they need to have more than a clinical understanding of their patients’ needs. During that time, students come to understand what each client goes through to obtain access to healthcare. During a pre-clinical appointment, the students learn more about their patient, including how they manage transportation, communicating in other languages, where they come from and the obstacles they faced and how they overcame them.

“It’s not just about the clinical work, but the psychosocial events and things that they go through,” Banu said. “Treatment is important, and students need to know how to take clinical history. But if you want to know your patient as a whole, you have to know their background, which includes a pre-migration, trans-migration and post-migration journey. They’re really learning the patient’s story, not just treatment.”

To learn more about the Clinic of International Trauma Survivors, call 713-873-5135 or email ClinicITS@bcm.edu.

By Homa Warren