Valleywise Health opens new health center to care for kids, women and refugees

A new Valleywise Health Center is specializing in caring for women, children and refugees. It’s a place where a diverse set of providers who speak several languages can connect with a population that sees healthcare as foreign and difficult.

PHOENIX - A new Valleywise Health Center location in Maryvale is specializing in caring for women, children and refugees.

It’s a place where a diverse set of providers who speak several languages can connect with a population that sees healthcare as foreign and sometimes difficult.

"So when they get here, it’s an opportunity for them as a human being to receive proper care, so they can redefine themselves and be healthy to start a new life in this country," said Jeanne Nicigiyimama with Valleywise Community Health Center-West Maryvale.

More than 80,000 refugees now call Arizona home and many live in the West Valley, having fled war-torn countries in Africa, the middle east, and most recently, Afghanistan.

"Sometimes depending on what they’re exposed to, they don’t know the benefits of preventative health, they don’t know prenatal care because that is not existing from where they’re from," Nicigiyimama said.

She says the provider team at the center is specially trained to be culturally responsive and to provide health equity.

"People are empowered to seek care and feel like, ‘I know who I can trust, so and so is there, she is from my country, she knows my language, she does not look down on me,’" Nicigiyimama explained.

The new center can be found at 75th Avenue and Thomas Road in Maryvale.