Marta-Johanna Svendsen (2023)

Submitted: 2023
Supervisors: David lackalnd (Faculty of Psychology), and Esperanza Diaz and Oddvar Kaarbøe (Pandemic Centre)

Link to BORA - Bergen Open Research Archive (in Norwegian)

Abstract:

The Health Ambassador Project was formed to efficiently distribute information about the COVID-19 pandemic to migrants, by creating possibilities for dialogue between individuals who had key roles in their migrant community (Health Ambassadors (HA)) with health experts and the municipality. The HA would thereafter distribute the information to migrants in their own language.

The project started in the spring of 2021 and ended in the fall of 2022, with the later stage including HA from Ukraine. To evaluate how the HA-Project affected the HA themselves we interviewed seven HA about their experiences participating in the project. The individual interviews were analyzed using systematic text condensation. For all HA, participating in the project was an overall positive experience, by getting a sense of meaning and feeling as an important resource during a global crisis. There were also positive social and professional aspects in being able to meet other HA and learning from each other’s experiences and challenges. Challenging aspects were having the significant responsibility of conveying information to fellow migrants and fighting misinformation. Several of the HA used more of their free time than was expected of them, helping people in practical ways. HA who came in on a later stage in the project reached out to less migrants and experienced the project as more stressful given the lack of availability of translations to their own language. Targeted health interventions using migrants to address their peers should consider the experiences of those distributing information and minimize their psychological stress.