Therapeutic Drumming: Music & Wellness
This program combines therapeutic drumming sessions which were piloted with success in Cincinnati for Bhutanese-Nepali refugees. This project provides a culturally appropriate means to reach out to refugees within Franklin County and provide emotional release and a sense of community through drumming sessions combined with the facilitated discussions.While CRIS will organize sessions over the course of the program for other communities, this program is specifically targeting seniors within the 
Bhutanese-Nepali refugee community, a group with large and unmet needs, and for whom the overall health provider community has not developed culturally appropriate means to work with. The seniors within the Bhutanese-Nepali refugee community may especially experience a great deal of isolation in their process of resettlement.CRIS led our first session for the larger Bhutanese-Nepali community on Friday, May 30th 
in an open space in the area where the majority of this community lives. While the group started small, and was mainly attended by seniors and adults, after 15 minutes the space was full with community members of all ages joining in on drumming, singing and dancing. A few individuals noted how they felt so happy being outside in a setting like this, and that it reminded them of what they loved back home. CRIS will continue to organize periodic larger group sessions, but also combine smaller sessions with groups participating in Community Adjustment Support Groups led by the CRIS Refugee Wellness Team.One Refugee's Story: Tara Bir is a Bhutanese-Nepali refugee man in his 60s who has lived in Columbus for two years, having been resettled as a refugee after living in refugee camps in Nepal for over 20 years. Tara describes himself as a musical person, having always enjoyed singing, dancing, and playing instruments. There were frequent informal opportunities for music making in the camps but since arriving in Columbus, he has not had the chance for engaging in these activities in an organized way.In a recent interview asking him about the program, he stated that the Music and Wellness sessions were the first time he has been able to play music, sing, and dance since arriving in Columbus and that it made him feel very good and connected to his community here in a new way. With adults working and children in school, there are few activities like this that can serve to bring the community together through means that are culturally appropriate and relevant to them. For the occasion of our first program session, Tara wrote a poem expressing the struggles he and his community had faced in Bhutan and Nepal and how happy and lucky he feels to now be given the opportunity to rebuild a new life in America. Community members of all ages sat and listened in rapt attention and tears shone in Tara’s eyes as he finished his poem. Those listening nodded in agreement and clapped before breaking again into song, dance, and smiles.