Empowering Refugee Women: Raiza Kolia’s Mission

Alumna Raiza Kolia has dedicated her life to empowering women and girls within refugee communities, giving them a voice and access to mental health tools and resources.

In 2016, Raiza Kolia and her husband, Ernst Mücke, traveled to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, where they saw firsthand the plight of Syrian refugees in Lebanon who had been displaced by the ongoing civil war in Syria.

Upon their return to the States, Kolia, who earned her PhD in social work in the late ‘90s from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, grew increasingly restless.

“I need to go back there,” she finally said to her husband, who also earned a PhD from the University of Illinois in the late ‘90s, in computer science.

“Go,” he replied. “I’ve never seen you so unhappy. You must go.”

She contacted several NGOs working with refugees and offered her assistance as a mental health practitioner. They all pushed back: She didn’t know Arabic. They didn’t want short-term volunteers. She didn’t have medical training.

“I’ll carry the luggage if you want,” she said at one point. “I’ll do anything. I just want to go and do whatever is needed.”

It took Kolia nine months to convince an NGO that she was serious. She was, after all, a senior-level healthcare industry executive and a highly regarded consultant advising on international mental health programs. Who would want to give that up to go live in a desolate area of a poverty-stricken country to work—for free—with refugees with whom she could not communicate firsthand?

Founding Their Own NGO

That 2016 trip and her subsequent time in the Bekaa Valley planted the seeds for Kolia and Mücke to found their own NGO, Reaching Across Borders, in 2021. Kolia, CEO of the organization, spends the majority of her time in Lebanon.

The Bekaa covers nearly 40 percent of the total area of Lebanon and has about one million Lebanese citizens and, as of January 2023, an additional 318,000 Syrian refugees. Poverty is endemic in Lebanon. Ninety percent of Syrians living in the country and 70 percent of Lebanese live below the poverty line.

Kolia herself lives in rather spartan conditions in Lebanon. When Reaching Across Borders (RAB) was founded, she lived in a studio for $30 a month, surrounded by the refugee camps in the Bekaa. The tiny space doubled as office and home. A two-plate stove sufficed for her food preparation.

“In the morning, my team would come, and we’d work at the table,” she says. “Whoever needed a bit of privacy from the talks at the table sat on the bed.”

Lebanese winters are cold and rainy. It felt colder in Kolia’s studio, as the building had no insulation and no heat.

“Ernst and I would heat a pot of water on our stove and place three hot water bottles in our bed,” she says. “We only had electricity for four hours a day in that studio.”

She and Mücke later moved into a nicer apartment—one where they didn’t need to use hot water bottles for heat.

“Ernst is chairman of the board,” she says. “But really, he wears multiple hats. He does everything that’s connected with computers and equipment, and he does all the finances and operational things.

“I could not do what I am doing today without the support of my spouse.”

Empowering Refugees

Reaching Across Borders focuses on three issues in helping refugees: mental health, human rights, and empowerment of women and girls.

“We raise awareness of refugees’ rights as humans, their rights within the country,” Kolia says. “We started RAB because there was a gap in mental health services for refugees. We created a holistic mental health program, we can have one-on-one therapy, group therapy, support groups, outpatient psychiatric care with medication management.”

RAB prioritizes inclusivity, gender sensitivity, and community cohesions in its programs and services. The organization has been recognized by the Ministry of Education in Lebanon for providing quality Psychosocial Support (PSS) programs and has approval to implement the programs in schools in the Bekaa Valley.

“Our PSS programs are science- and evidence-based,” Kolia says. “We are elevating care through a revolutionary way of treating trauma by including a focus on the heart, the emotions, and on physical reactions.”

Their PSS programs combine cognitive behavioral therapy with HeartMath®, a system that uses evidence-based tools and techniques to manage stress, build resilience, and improve psychosocial well-being.

RAB is tiny—just six full-time team members and a part-time psychologist—but mighty. The organization has formed partnerships with other countries, including Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Kurdistan, and Palestine. They also work with many local NGOs.

Impacting Thousands of Lives

Kolia, originally from South Africa, knows what it is to live humbly. Her mother had no education at all; her father’s education stopped after fifth grade. But her father sat on boards, and both parents stressed education.

Kolia obviously got the message. Besides a bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD, she also earned an MBA.

“I got my MBA so I could say now you have to take me seriously when I sit at the table,” she says.

A Syrian-American doctor took her seriously enough to make a major contribution to RAB. That money helped RAB to directly impact thousands of lives in 2023.

“I want to you to know wherever you go to serve, I would like to donate to you. My money will follow you,” the doctor said.

“Embraced by the Community”

The language barrier has never been a problem for Kolia. She’s even gotten plugged into a Syrian women’s network in the Bekaa. She joins them in pickling cucumbers and eggplants, an annual practice among women. She has earned their trust.

“We are embedded in our community,” she says. “We belong to the community whom we serve. Ernst and I don’t even speak the language, yet we are embraced by our team and our community. They don’t see us as foreigners.”

If you would like to learn more about Reaching Across Borders, please visit https://reachingacrossborders.org/