Recently the Your Path to Our Health production team worked on three stories from the Greater Atlanta area. For one of those stories we spent time with Padham, a Bhutanese refugee. Padham’s community, Clarkson, an Atlanta suburb, is the home of just over 5,000 resettled Bhutanese of the total 66,000 who have been resettled in the US. Padham came to the U.S seven years ago, after having spent nearly 20 years in a refugee camp in Nepal as a result of civil strife in Bhutan that led to the government exile of many activists and supporters of the pro-democracy movement.

Padham was one of the first to come to the U.S. from his camp and became a vital resource to his fellow refugees who followed over time. The early years, were difficult for the majority of the refugees. Many lived in harsh isolation. Lacking English language capabilities, there were limited employment opportunities in their new home. The social fabric that built and supported community was missing. All of these factors contributed to high suicide rates and high rates of alcoholism. While working to support the resettled refugees, Padham and his colleagues watched as the Bhutanese struggled to rebuild the community that was lost. As the numbers of Bhutanese rose, community began to re-form and levels of suicide and alcoholism fell. While the refugees continue to struggle to make a home in their new country, their path has been eased by the community that they have built.