The Asian American nonprofit Rising Voices is hosting an educational event this weekend to kick off Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

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The event, Teaching Asian American History in Michigan: A Book Launch and Film Screening, will focus on the need for inclusive education in K-12. There will be a film screening of the documentary “Making Waves: The rise of Asian America,” about anti-Asian hate and Asian American political movements, including a push to include Asian American history in public school curriculum in the U.S.

There will be an author panel after the screening as well, featuring Dr. Roland Sintos Coloma, Dr. Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, Dr. Monica Eraqi, and Richard Mui.

The event will take place from 1:30-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, at the ACA Community Center, 32585 Concord Dr., Madison Heights.

Other headlines for Monday, April 28, 2025:

• The city of Hamtramck will host a series of Night Bazaars on the first Saturday of each month through the summer where local entrepreneurs, artists and small businesses can feature their work and products. The first event will be held from 4-9 p.m. this Saturday, May 3, at Pope Park. 
• Southwest Detroit will host the 60th annual Cinco De Mayo Parade this Sunday, May 4, featuring school marching bands, dignitaries, dancers, and more. This year’s theme is past, present and future. The parade starts at 10:30 a.m. from Shed 2 at Eastern Market.
• The Dearborn Public Library and We Shall Read are hosting a series of free workshops in English and Arabic to support parents in helping their children learn how to read. The first workshop begins at 10:30 a.m. June 11 for grades 1-2, in Arabic only. Parents should bring their children with them to the workshop.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org. 

Several Michigan leaders released statements today in response to the news of Pope Francis’ death, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger.

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The leader of the Roman Catholic Church died on Monday morning at the age of 88. Francis was the first Latin American pope and the first Jesuit in the position.

Weisenburger called Pope Francis “a powerful, prophetic and loving voice,” adding that he strongly believed that people had a responsibility to care for creation, not destroy it. He also said the pontiff’s call for peace echoed that of Christ. 

In a statement, Whitmer called Francis an “inspiration to countless Michiganders and people around the world” who “led with grace, compassion, and humility.”

“He reminded us that the true measure of one’s devotion to God comes in one’s devotion to others,” she said. “Pope Francis was a leader who called on all of us to live up to our better selves.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel called Pope Francis a “once-in-a generation leader whose humility, compassion, and thoughtfulness impacted people from all religious backgrounds and walks of life.”

–Reporting by Pat Batcheller, WDET News. WDET’s Jenny Sherman and Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield contributed.

Other headlines for Monday, April 21, 2025:

• Addiction researchers at the University of Michigan are starting a study this year that will pay smokers of menthol cigarettes to quit.
• The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is encouraging people to get vaccinated during National Infant Immunization Week, April 21-28.
• The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) announced a $8.1 million investment in renewable energy that will support solar power projects for almost two million Michigan households and businesses.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

The National Poll on Healthy Aging has released new data regarding how climate change and extreme weather impact health for adults 50 and up.

Sue Ann Bell, associate professor of nursing at the University of Michigan, says she hopes the poll encourages older adults, health care providers and people who work in emergency response and government to prepare to care for older adults during emergencies. 

“To prioritize extreme weather events and extreme weather event planning, because I think one thing we see so often is that we go for a period of time without a disaster happening. And you know, so you have sort of a false sense of confidence that can lead to being less prepared.”

The poll asked older adults about their experiences with extreme weather events and their concerns about how extreme weather events might impact their health, both now and in the future. 

The survey found that 75% of people who’ve lived through an extreme weather event said they were very concerned about the impacts of these events on their own health, and that’s compared to around 33% of older adults in Michigan who had not experienced an extreme weather event. 

Read the full report here.

More headlines for Monday, April 14, 2025:

• The Michigan Attorney General’s office has launched a new form for residents to report social security benefit disruptions and share their experiences.
• The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is recommending that U.S. citizens be vigilant when traveling internationally, as Customs and Border Protection may want to search the electronic devices of some people coming back in the U.S.
• The city of Detroit is accepting requests from residents for tree plantings in their neighborhoods to help improve the city’s tree canopy.
• A documentary focused on pro-Palestine encampments at universities across the U.S. has come to Detroit. Screenings of “The Encampments“ will be held daily at the Bel Air Luxury Cinema, 10100 8 Mile Rd., Detroit through April 17.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Over the weekend, the 17th annual Muslim Mental Health Conference took place at the Soho Banquet Center in Westland and online.

Aquila Hussain is on the board of directors and the chair of the volunteer subcommittee. She says it’s the longest-running academic conference dedicated to mental health care for Muslim communities.

“It’s very much on what is the research showing in clinical setting, what is the research showing behind the scenes, and really kind of bringing in a lot of academic merit to the study of this very diverse demographic,” she said.

Hussain said the conference helps to bring awareness to Muslim mental health needs.

“We want to get Muslim mental health practitioners, clinicians, researchers, medical professionals, to come together and talk about what is happening. We like to call it like the meeting of the minds, where we bring everyone together to kind of have these important conversations,” she shared.

Hussain said it’s also a chance for people to network.

This year the theme was resilience, resistance and collective care.

“We as a society, are resilient, and we can show resistance and very you know, it doesn’t have to be these grandiose gestures. It can be smaller gestures. And so bringing everyone together to kind of talk about that. And so this compassionate care and cultivating focusing on tradition,” she said.

Hussain said, despite a large Muslim population in Michigan, it isn’t reflected in the research.

“I think Muslims are very marginalized population, especially in Michigan. We make a large… make up a large percentage of the population, when looking at minority populations, yet we don’t really get representation equal to that,” she said.

Hussain said the conference allows diverse Muslim populations — Black, LatinX, South Asian, Arab American  — to discuss mental health in the Muslim community.

“The Muslim population is large enough. It’s a diverse group of us. We range all over the world, and we’ve had such different experiences and different ways of living that it’s hard to kind of just lump us into one large group and just say like this is what happens to Muslims,” she said.

Hussain said, although she doesn’t have stats, adequately she knows there’s a growing need for Muslim mental health counselors.

“I always have a wait list, and it’s almost always of Muslim people. So personally, yeah, I think like people are reaching out exponentially, especially people teens to like, mid-30s, are a lot more open to therapy, are a lot more interested in kind of understanding their line of thinking and reflecting on these things,” she said. “I think that has a lot to do with this conference and how the systemic like destigmatization of mental health in Muslim communities.”

She said it’s important to have safe spaces to discuss world matters.

The Muslim Mental Health Conference took place April 11-12.

Editor’s Note: This story is part four of a new four-part series from WDET’s Nargis Rahman called, “Shustho: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” exploring health care and health care access for Bangladeshi women.

Ayesha Tanjum moved to the U.S. about two years ago with her husband, an international student. Shortly after, she learned she was pregnant.  

“It was really tough for me in Michigan, because I didn’t have any friends or relatives around, and I was struggling to make friends,” she said. 

Tanjum said she was having mood swings due to hormonal changes and a complicated pregnancy.

“I had loneliness, frustrations, fear, anxiety, and I was alone. So I had a hyper, hypertension that time. And in the last time, my doctor figured it out that my baby’s baby’s growth is restricted,” she explained. 

Tanjum says she ultimately got the care and support she needed. She also read books to learn more about maternal health and nutrition, and began reaching out to old friends and connecting with new ones. That helped to improve her mental health. 

Speaking about mental health remains a taboo subject for many Bangladeshi women. 

Shuhrat Choudhury is a Bangladeshi American mental health counselor. She says stigma is the biggest reason many women don’t seek care — especially in older generations.

“I would be contacted by their sons, their daughters, their daughter-in-laws, that we need help for our mom or, like the older generation, but they are not OK. Like, they just, it’s that stigma around mental health, they go, ‘I’m not crazy,’” she said.  

Choudhury says younger Bangladeshi Americans struggle with navigating between American individuality and the Bangladeshi culture’s collective family expectations, in which personal boundaries do not exist in the same way in Bangladeshi culture.  

“When I transition to working someone with from our community, I have to find that balance. I just can’t advise them to move out, because you know that’s just not how it works in our culture,” she said. “I might use that terminology, but as long I’m explaining in our culture, it might not be feasible exactly the definition, but maybe a different version of it.” 

Choudhury said affordability is another barrier which can keep people from getting mental health care services. 

“Not a lot of our community members have access to better insurance plans, or they’re not financially stable. That when mixed with that stigma that we’re already trying to overcome, one obstacle on top of it, if it’s not financially feasible, then that just creates more delay in getting that help,” she added. 

There’s also a shortage of Bangla or Bengali speaking mental health professionals.  

“The need is much more than I could have ever anticipated, so I hope that more people join this field, from our community, and there is a need, and we desperately need to fill that.”

– Shuhrat Choudhury, Bangladeshi American mental health counselor

“I have been reached out by people from out of state, like someone in Michigan worked with me and their mom, brother, sister, someone’s like in Texas, but they just can’t find someone Bengali there,” she said.

Choudhury says she didn’t know there was such a need until she entered the field. She says she made that choice, in part, to give back to the community. 

“The need is much more than I could have ever anticipated,” she said. “So I hope that more people join this field, from our community, and there is a need, and we desperately need to fill that.”

Like Choudhury, Fariha Ghazi entered the mental health field to provide culturally competent care. Ghazi is a psychiatric physician assistant in Grand Rapids, who lives in the metro Detroit area and has telehealth options. 

She said she frequently sees Bangladeshi women struggling with anxiety, which manifests as physical symptoms first. 

“When they go see their general primary care provider, they’re often treated for things like stomach pain or acid reflux or, given sleep medication to help with sleep, a kind of root cause of a lot of those physical symptoms, it tends to be what I see being anxiety and trying to get them treatment for it,” she said. 

Ghazi says many women hesitate to discuss their mental health. She takes a creative approach to uncovering their struggles. 

“If someone has children, you know, I’d maybe ask her what are things that she thinks about in terms of her children, so if she’s always kind of like jumping to worst case scenarios, like thinking something bad’s going to happen to her child, or she kind of expresses that in our session, I’ll kind of note that as being, part of her symptoms.”  

Many women are also hesitant to take medication due to cultural taboos surrounding mental health treatment.

Ghazi said there is cultural taboo around taking medications to treat mental health, and part of her role is to explain treatment options and encourage self-advocacy, which she said plays a role in coverage. 

“If someone’s not fully aware of the terminology or what’s out there as resources, they’re not likely to get the health care that they need. They’re also much more willing to just kind of not question medical providers either. They’ll, be more complacent in their care,” she said. 

Choudhury and Ghazi say mental health is a vital part of caring for Bangladeshi women. They see a growing need for more Bangladeshi mental health professionals to serve their community.  

For now, they are using their language skills, cultural awareness, and lived experiences to provide better care. 

Read more from this series:

• Free health clinic aims to close insurance gap for Bangladeshi women in southeast Michigan  
• Bangladeshi women rely on culturally competent care for better health outcomes
• How language access affects health care for Bangladeshi women in Michigan

Organizers and volunteers of the Muslim Foster Care Association (MFCA) hosted a buffet-style meal and celebration for its third annual Ramadan iftar, bringing Muslim foster youth and families together.

Iftar is the meal where Muslims break their fast during Ramadan.

There was a row of savory food from the halal restaurant Sukho Thai in Dearborn Heights, and a table full of sweet treats like knafeh and enormous Macadamia cookies.

MFCA Co-founder Sameena Zahoor welcomed the attendees. 

“I want to thank the families and the foster parents and the families are helping the foster parents and the foster youth that are here today,” she said.

Many Muslims spend time fasting, praying, and doing extra worship with a community during Ramadan. However, many Muslim foster children in Michigan end up spending Ramadan in non-Muslim foster homes — alone. 

MFCA wanted to provide a space for the youth to be in community with others.

Salifu Mahmoud previously lived in a non-Muslim home as a foster youth since resettling from Ghana about three years ago. He now lives in independent housing in Canton. 

He says fasting during Ramadan is an important part of his religious practices.

“Living with someone who is not like Muslim, like foster care, it’s kind of hard in Ramadan,” he shared.

Mahmoud says his former foster care provider was unaware of his religion or obligations during Ramadan — such as waking up early to eat suhoor, the morning meal before fasting, or praying Taraweeh in congregation at a mosque during Ramadan nights. 

This year Mahmoud is staying with a Muslim family during Ramadan, allowing him to experience the familial and communal practices of the month.

“Since I moved to America, this is my best Ramadan,” he said, reflecting that it reminds him of his Ramadans in Africa. “They [his Muslim foster parents] treat me like their kids, showing me love.” 

At the iftar, Tonja Baker, a therapist who works for Whaley Children’s Center in Flint, came to learn more about MFCA.

“I was connected through this program for one of our youth at the campus, and managed to be able to bring her down and have her enjoy, you know, Iftar, and be able to just meet and greet with the other families that are here,” she said.

It’s important for the staff to learn culturally competent care to provide services or Muslim youth, Baker said, and the center tries to link Muslim youth to mosques in the area, but resources are scarce.

In addition to the iftar, MFCA passed out Ramadan 215 baskets filled with goodies like dates, halal marshmallows, and a Target gift card to Muslim foster youth in Michigan. 

Shereen Abunada, director of operations at MFCA, says she’s been working to increase the number of Muslim foster parents, but many are feeling burnout.

“That happens when parents have a placement that doesn’t go as well as they had hoped,” she said.

There are about 10 licensed Muslim foster families for the state’s 250 Muslim foster youth, 50 more than last year.

Abunada says the number of Muslim youth in the system has increased. In anticipation of potentially changing immigration policies, resettlement agencies recently expedited travel for Muslim foster youth from West African countries.

“So we’ve had an influx of about 50 to 70 youth that have just recently arrived in the in the past couple months,” she said.

Abunada says unaccompanied refugee minors feel vulnerable.

“A lot of them are also just the fear of being deported, the fear of being targeted. A lot of these kids are just by themselves, kind of going back to their own, their home countries, or trying to find other places to be,” she said.

Abunada says organizations and agencies are working to protect the children.

Hosting the iftar was one way to create a community for the foster youth, as they navigate the next steps in their journeys.

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