It’s been over a year since I wrote my last blog post. 2022 is the year where Moonlight Hubb Consulting, LLC became very busy. This year was an opportunity for me to adapt and apply new ways of managing all aspects of my professional work. So here I am again, sharing a piece of me and Moonlight Hubb Consulting to you all.
A perk of being a consultant is that I have the liberty to collaborate with individuals and organizations all across the world to work on unique projects. The year 2022 has been the most exciting year for Moonlight Hubb Consulting. I had the honor of working alongside passionate and talented individuals with visions to create meaningful connections, services and innovations to benefit their communities.
One of this year’s achievements was having interns to support MHC’s initiatives and research projects. The internship created opportunities for interns to develop and strengthen their writing skills and work on projects based on their interests. I enjoyed having interns and engaging with them each week. I got to learn about their passions, ambitions and perspectives on various topics such as human rights, mental wellness and global crises. The interns, who are mostly high school and college students, reminded me of myself when I was their age. The benefit of living in a world where the digital platform is the primary method of communication is the ability to connect with like-minded individuals from around the world.
A dear friend of mine was working at Southern New Hampshire University’s Global Education Movement (GEM) program. GEM provides internship opportunities for students identified as refugees living in Malawi, Lebanon, Rwanda and South Africa. I had the pleasure of having interns from the GEM program, Lubaba Dasouki and Raphael Ndabaga. The partnership with GEM was important for me because I wanted to give opportunities to those who were looking to build and strengthen their professional skills but did not have access to obtaining those professional experiences.
I spent a year collaborating with the Refugee Empowerment Project (REP), a nonprofit organization founded by Lily Sind and Sienna Nazarian, two high school students from Los Angeles. Together, we worked on developing two programs, one on youth mentorship and another on mental health. We provided training for high school students to be socially and culturally competent when engaging with their mentees. To introduce REP’s mental health program to the refugee community, we hosted Mental Health Matters: A Refugee and Migrant Health Conference. The conference had speakers from various professional backgrounds provide informational materials and tools to manage mental health as well as share personal experiences.
Stowelink, a NGO based in Kenya, focuses on providing education, tools and resources about noncommunicable diseases to under-resourced communities. Stowelink aims to improve health literacy among the communities. I had the opportunity of presenting the topic of correlation between adverse childhood experiences and noncommunicable diseases with one of the co-founders of Stowelink, Stephen Ogweno.
I’ve been a supporter of Miry’s List for almost 5 years now. Since 2016, Miry’s List has supported over 1,000 new arrival refugees all across the United States. It’s been a delight to work with Miry’s List once again in 2022. We developed and implemented FATIMEH (Feelings, Actions, Thoughts in Mental and Emotional Health), a new program at Miry’s List with focus on mental health education and advocacy training for youths. The FATIMEH program is a follow-up to the first program we developed in 2021 for youths, called SANAH social-emotional learning for kids. FATIMEH is also Miry’s List first one-year program. Each month, participants between the ages of 15 and 25 are required to read materials, participate in activities and attend monthly Community Conversations on Zoom. The goals of FATIMEH are: to promote well-being by providing information on mental health, to provide opportunities to share their feelings and to offer tools to become trained advocates to support mental health of the people around them.
Last but not the least, I would like to highlight my experiences producing a three-day convening for Hello Neighbor Network in Pittsburgh, PA. Hello Neighbor Network (HNN) is powered by Hello Neighbor, a nonprofit organization that supports new arrival refugees residing in the city of Pittsburgh. Sloane Davidson, the founder of Hello Neighbor, created HNN as a space to connect nonprofit organizations working with refugees and immigrants across the United States to learn, grow and inspire change. The theme of the convening was Building Bridges Together. Over 80 leaders and supporters attended the convening. Local vendors who are BIPOC, immigrants and refugees were invited to cater food.
The city of Pittsburgh is known as one of the welcoming cities in the United States. Visiting City of Asylum, The Heinz History Center and checking out the murals at the Hill District captures the city’s history of being a refuge for blacks, immigrants and exiled artists.
What makes this project so special for me is the connection to Fred Rogers, the creator of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Fred Rogers lived in Pittsburgh and filmed the show in the city. The classic TV show taught us about the importance of human connections, empathy, compassion and mindfulness.
I love my job. I love to be able to make a positive impact. I love the human connections that I’m able to make and receive through my work.
Amarjit Dass