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Development Office
Due to the quality and reputation of the International Clinic, approximately 600 refugees are seen annually for initial
health assessments and referred for on-going primary care as needed. BMC now proposes to create the Boston Center for
Refugee Health and Human Rights, a "one-stop" center (the Center) to serve the various needs of refugees, political
asylum applicants, and newly-arrived immigrants. The Center will focus on survivors of torture and related trauma and
will be an innovative and integrated model for multidisciplinary services including medicine, public health and law. The
Center will serve a broad range of medical, legal, psychological and social service needs of refugees arriving in Boston
and throughout the region. At the same time, the Center will emphasize care for high-risk groups of newly arrived
immigrants such as torture survivors, political asylum applicants, and refugee visa holders from countries of origin
(e.g. Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and West Africa) who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, among other conditions.
As the principal teaching hospital of Boston University School of Medicine (BU), with strong partnerships with BU’s Law and
Public Health Schools, BMC is well positioned to launch this important initiative. No program now exists in the US that
provides such comprehensive medical, legal and social services for these populations. Thus, in addition to the critical
services it will provide, the Center may also serve as an important national model for providing such needed services in
our increasingly diverse and multi-ethnic society.
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