Dr. Jasmina Kevric, a distinguished breast cancer surgeon at Melbourne’s Cabrini Hospital, has turned her harrowing childhood experiences into a mission to support fellow refugees. Hailing from Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dr. Kevric was just a toddler when the Bosnian War started in 1992. The violent conflict soon drove her family to seek refuge in their country’s northwest, settling in a town called Bihać. Their odyssey took them through Germany, and four years later they landed in a permanent settlement in Melbourne, Australia.
As a child, the chaos of war had a lasting effect on Dr. Kevric’s formative years. She recalls the terrifying moments that changed everything for her family: “All we heard was a big bang and the sound of the splinters that came towards us. I saw lots of blood. I saw my family on the floor. My grandmother, I witnessed her laying on the ground in a pool of blood. My grandfather had my brother sheltered under his protection. There was blood on both of them. Having survived this profoundly traumatic experience, her family’s desperate reality became the impetus for their rapidly becoming refugees and ultimately beginning their life in Australia.
Upon landing in Melbourne, Dr. Kevric found herself in deep waters. Not only did she not speak English but she was fighting against a culture that was difficult for her to acclimate to. She embraced these obstacles with determination. Learning English was the biggest hurdle obviously because I didn’t speak any English. But I embraced this new culture. To be fairly long—namely, that during that time, people like me missed out on education for the last 14 years. That’s why I was just totally starving—to learn,” she said.
Dr. Kevric’s determination to educate herself received a personal victory when she won a scholarship to Study Medicine at Melbourne University. These days, she focuses on breast cancer surgery and uses her expertise to serve patients at Cabrini Hospital. Beyond her clinical work, she has been volunteering at the Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub in Northcote. There, she commits her time to support others who are experiencing the same challenges she once faced.
Dr. Kevric’s commitment to refugee health is highly valued by her colleagues, including Professor Suresh Sundram, the hub’s clinical director. He emphasized the unique health challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers: “Any specialist who’ve got an experience of a refugee background more sensitively manage and deal with the sorts of complexities that asylum seekers and refugees present. They can’t reach or identify health needs that are a priority. He emphasized that the trauma embedded in the migration journey is permeating mental health.
The Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub has grown to be a crucial resource to hundreds of individuals. With it come more accessible healthcare services that they need and deserve. Professor Sundram highlighted the historical significance of this initiative: “St Francis Cabrini, who established the Cabrini Order in New York, really to cater to the needs of the immigrants that were coming into America. This alliance became the winning collaboration to host the hub here. It has been an unmitigated success, keeping refugees and asylum seekers who don’t have the means or the ability to navigate the national system out of emergency rooms and off the streets while receiving completely free healthcare.
Dr Kevric’s ultimate goal is for Australians to view refugees as people like them. She hopes her story will illustrate the devastating loss and pain they’ve suffered. And finally, “These people will have lost everything in their life, I hope the Australian public see them as that,” she said. She believes that refugees possess untapped potential and could become valuable contributors to society. Secondly, I want to really re-inspire everyone about the amazing potential refugees bring to our country. Why, they might even grow up to be our future doctors and lawyers!
Her own health experiences have fueled her passion to assist others on their health journeys. As Dr. Kevric said, “I feel very lucky to have come this far in life. Now, I can offer the help that refugee patients really need.” And I know that not just in theory, but because of my own personal experience.
To Dr. Kevric’s credit, her resilience is reflected in statistics that speak to the success of humanitarian migrants in Australia. More than one-fifth of refugees surveyed in the past ten years have taken on self-employment, according to research. Instead, this trend only serves to underscore their focus and desire to win at all costs. Professor Sundram went on to explain why this study is so important. It is already the largest longitudinal study of humanitarian migrants in Australia, and one of the largest in the world.
Dr. Kevric continues to be a beacon of hope to many. She is an innovative and relentless champion for a better understanding of, and respect for, the experiences of refugees in Australian life. Her ultimate goal is to break down the stereotypes about refugees and to showcase the positive impact they have made on the community.
