While at the fall student organization fair her freshman year, SESP senior Jessica Sun came across an organization whose mission deeply resonated with her: Chinatown Health Initiative.
CTHI’s work to promote health literacy for residents inspired Sun, especially because her grandmother lived in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood for over thirty years. Now, Sun serves as the president of CTHI.
“I feel like (understanding the healthcare system) is probably something that my grandma struggled with a little bit when she was living there,” Sun said. “A lot of them are hesitant to go to the doctor because of not understanding how the healthcare system works, as well as language barriers or financial concerns.”
CTHI is split into four committees: clinical, health education, finance and events. The club’s finance and events sectors focus on internal initiatives, like on-campus fundraising, club bonding activities and hosting speaker events.
The clinical and health education committees are outward-facing, working to partner with local organizations to offer health services in Chinatown.
One of the clinical committee’s main initiatives is providing translation services at monthly health screenings organized in Chinatown by the Midwest Asian Health Association. The screenings are staffed by local medical students from schools like Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Midwestern University.
“I thought it was pretty cool that I could get to use my Mandarin speaking skills to contribute in a way,” SESP junior and clinical committee co-chair Tok Lin Yeo said.
Sun said these screenings for conditions, such as osteoporosis and hypertension, provide important health services without language, financial, cultural and other barriers that can prevent Chinatown residents from receiving the care they need.
Weinberg senior and clinical committee co-chair Allen Wang said his group has struggled with not being able to provide interpretation support for patients outside of these screenings. Wang said they are working to compile resources to help patients take steps past being screened.
“There’s no continuity or further care that we’re able to give a lot of times, and it kind of puts us in a weird situation because we understand that we’re there to operate only as interpreters,” Wang said. “That’s, I think, a larger gap in the structure of our current medical system.”
CTHI’s health education committee has worked to create informational cards on health-related issues pertinent to the elderly population in Chinatown.
Members of the committee distribute these cards in collaboration with the Chicago Public Library’s Chinatown Branch, the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, the Chinese American Service League and other local organizations. In September, CTHI distributed health cards at the St. James Health Fair in Chinatown.
Starting this fall, club members hope to expand their collaborations with local organizations and medical students as well as rekindle partnerships lost over the pandemic. For example, they are currently working with Tzu Chi Midwest, a local chapter of a national Buddhist humanitarian organization, to revive clinical work done before the pandemic.
Additionally, Weinberg junior, Events Chair and Interim President Haile He said he hopes to make CTHI’s on-campus speaker events more relevant to the larger NU community.
“My favorite thing about being part of the initiative is I’m making a difference in the Chinatown community,” He said. “We’re very much involved in the Chinatown community this year and just hoping to increase the things that we can do.”
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