On Wednesday March 5, the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health and Global Health NOW hosted an event entitled “Extraordinary Journeys: Stories of Refugees Fleeing Conflict and Shaping Global Health.” Held at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington D.C. and available to an online audience through a livestream, the storytelling event highlighted the experiences of refugees from the Bloomberg School of Public Health (BSPH) community.
During this event, five graduates of the School of Public Health who hailed from several different countries — including Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, Sudan and Syria — shared their experiences living through humanitarian crises and their impacts within public health.
Paul Spiegel, a professor at the School of Public Health, opened the event with welcoming remarks. Spiegel highlighted the presenters' contributions to global health and cited the Peter Salama MPH Tuition Scholarship for Refugees, which supports four of the five speakers, as an example of the power of education.
“Tonight's speakers will illuminate the challenges faced by refugees, but more importantly, they're going to highlight solutions, their leadership and resilience remind us that refugees are not passive recipients of aid, but they're actually doctors, researchers, policy makers and humanitarians who are actively shaping the future of global health,” he said.
Frances Stead Sellers — an associate editor of The Washington Post and advisory member of the Center for Humanitarian Health — began the presentations by introducing Hasina Alokozai, a master’s student at the School of Public Health and recipient of the Peter Salama MPH Tuition Scholarship for Refugees
Alokozai shared her journey of being born in a refugee camp in Pakistan to her experiences in Afghanistan before her family was forced to flee due to the Taliban’s return to power.
She recounted her struggles with disease and lack of primary healthcare services as a child in Pakistan, connecting it to her passion for maternal and child nutrition programs alongside her work with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund — also known as UNICEF.
“I found out from my elder sibling that I had measles. At that time, there weren’t enough accessible primary healthcare services, so I had to go through it,” she said. “I, as a refugee girl, with my family suffered from preventable diseases, complicated by the lack of clean water, sanitation and lack of public health intervention.”
The next speaker was Dr. Houssam al-Nahhas, a 2019–2020 Sommer Scholar and recipient of the Peter Salama MPH Tuition Scholarship for Refugees. During Syria’s uprising, he provided crucial medical care on a medical team called the Light of Life and now works for Physicians for Human Rights.
al-Nahhas’s presentation discussed his time as a healthcare provider in Syria, detailing how he was detained for his services and the consequences of war.
“Days passed by [in the detention center], and the only thing that was that I was thinking about was whether I would get out alive or not. [...] But deep inside, I was proud knowing that if I die, I will be dying doing the thing that I always wanted to do, which is helping people,” he explained.
He ended his presentation by saying that no matter what happens next, he will continue fighting for Syria’s future and for the dignity and justice that every person, physician, child and mother deserves because hope is real.
The third speaker was Nan Aye Aye, a nurse who fled conflict in Myanmar and grew up in a Thai refugee camp. She is a recipient of the Peter Salama MPH Tuition Scholarship for Refugees and works to help refugees to access healthcare.
During Aye’s presentation, she discussed how the Myanmar conflict affected her as a child. She reflected on her journey from naivety to sudden realization of the events around her.
“I remember the day that my siblings and I went to school only to be met by a pile of ash [...] A decade later, my mom told us again, ‘Hey, pack your things, you have one hour left to leave,‘” she said.
Aye continued her presentation by explaining how these life events have fueled her passion for public health, inspiring her to go to pharmacy school and pursue higher education.
The next speaker was Aseel Salih, a student who fled Sudan’s civil war. She served as one of the country’s government health officials before attending the School of Public Health as a 2023–24 Sommer Scholar, focusing on health policy and pharmacoepidemiology.
During her presentation, Salih detailed the crucial role that her mother had in influencing her journey into education. As she navigated her mother’s diagnosis with a rare genetic disease, Salih said how realizing the reality of Sudan’s very fragile health system as a child motivated her to work in health policy. Further, Salih outlined the consequences of war and the devastating impacts that it has on refugees and citizens.
“I heard so many things I was going through finals [the day the militia invaded my hometown]. Oh, you're so strong. Oh, you're so resilient. No, that's not a choice. People like me, who are refugees, don't have the primitive being weak. You have to continue. [...] But war goes beyond just war safety,” she said.
The last speaker was Kemish Kenneth Alier. From South Sudan, he was the first recipient of the Peter Salama MPH Tuition Scholarship for Refugees. During his virtual presentation, Alier discussed his experience living in a refugee camp in Uganda, practicing medicine in a rural hospital and his work now as a researcher for health and nutrition.
Alier recounted the hardships that he experienced living for 20 years in the refugee camp, including persistent malnutrition and lack of medical care. He reflected on these events, detailing how they inspired him to pursue a career in public health and create a happy, healthy family.
“It’s my hope that one day when I have kids at home, that I’d be there. To love them as a dad and show them how to navigate the ups and downs of life and ensure that they have plenty, plenty of milk,” he said.
In an email to The News-Letter, Spiegel described the importance of this event and what he hoped students who attended could take away from each of the presentations.
“While we often discuss the challenges refugees face, it's equally important to highlight their resilience, ingenuity, and contributions to society. Many refugees are not only rebuilding their own lives but also improving health systems, driving innovation, and advocating for change,” he wrote. “I encourage attendees to take what they’ve learned today and consider how they can contribute—whether through research, policy, or fieldwork—to creating a more inclusive and effective response to forced displacement and global health crises.”
