Features

By: Lilly St. Angelo

Published May 19, 2022 in the Burlington Free Press in English and French

Every Wednesday at noon, Dr. Jules Wetchi gets on Big Heavy World radio and plays an unlikely combination of roles: DJ and public health expert.

Wetchi puts on upbeat African music first, warming up his audience to the hour ahead. Then he comes on, speaking in French.

"Welcome to the African Varieties Show, here we are live from Burlington's community radio Big Heavy World, 105.9 FM," Wetchi says.

The topic that comes next could be anything from information about the norovirus outbreak, to Gov. Phil Scott's latest press conference, to information about an upcoming snowstorm and how to stay safe. After a few minutes of talking, Wetchi switches back to music and bobs his head to the beat, greeting friends from around the world tuning in through his Facebook Live stream.

Wetchi is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he was a doctor who specialized in cataract surgery. When he came to Vermont in 2013, Wetchi's medical degree did not transfer easily in the U.S., so he got a job as a medication technician at an assisted living community and went back to school. He graduated with a master's in public health from University of Vermont in 2019.

Though he no longer heals ailments or extracts cataracts from eyes, Wetchi has found a way to use his public health expertise and scratch his itch to serve his community through his radio and TV shows. He aims to inform African Vermonters about news and important health information, while also celebrating and creating space for African culture in Burlington. The African Varieties Show, Wetchi believes, is a testament to the importance of cultural knowledge and familiarity in public health work.

Wetchi started his radio show with Big Heavy World in September 2020.

Jim Lockridge, executive director of Big Heavy World, wanted a show that served New Americans in Burlington and reached out to former St. Joseph's priest Lance Harlow, who used to lead a French mass at the church. Harlow then tapped Wetchi, who already had hoped of one day having a show on public access television to serve the French-speaking Catholic African community.

Wetchi's identity as both Congolese and a public health professional made him specially positioned to help inform his community during the pandemic.

"I was taking care of them back home," Wetchi said. "So when I share information with them, they trust me."

Not only did he have their trust, but he was also familiar with culturally appropriate ways of learning and sharing information. He filmed one of his shows at a Congolese celebration of International Women's Day because he knew that with dancing and food afterward, people would sit through an informational presentation about women's health.

"You create one event like a party so they can listen to you and after they are going to eat and drink," Wetchi said. "This is African culture; American people, they don't understand that."

Before he was an eye surgeon in the Congo, he was a general physician and treated Ebola patients during outbreaks. Wetchi said that much of the spread of Ebola happened through cultural practices done to a body after death. When people were educated about the dangers of touching and washing the body of an Ebola victim, transmission went down.

He saw a similar initial lack of effective communication within his Congolese community when COVID-19 hit, which spurred him to action. Instead of sharing information American-style, he would do it African-style.

In between playing tunes that reminded him and his friends and family of home, he spoke in Congolese languages about vaccines, the importance of masks and how Vermont was handling the pandemic, effectively slipping information vegetables into his listeners' steady music diet. 

The African Varieties Show grew this past fall when Wetchi started a TV version of the show on Town Meeting TV called the African Variety Show. In the video format, which can be accessed on YouTube, Wetchi performs in-depth interviews with community members, translating everything into languages Congolese people speak. Content has ranged from how Burlington city government works to the life story of a musician from the Republic of the Congo.

Congolese people in Burlington speak one or more of three main languages: French, Swahili and Lingala (also known as Ngala). English can be a fourth or fifth language for them, Wetchi said. While several Burlington refugee organizations disseminate information in appropriate languages, Wetchi said communication gaps persist because of cultural preferences.

"African people, they love to listen, to watch, they don't have time to read, they prefer to listen," Wetchi said.

The African Varieties Show is not only meant for people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The languages Wetchi speaks also reach other African populations in the Burlington area, including people from Republic of the Congo, Togo and the Ivory Coast who speak French, and Kenyans and Ugandans who speak Swahili.

Wetchi believes public health includes more than just education about diseases. Through his shows, he aims to help people integrate into American life and get involved in their communities.

Wetchi's wife Rachel Wetchi sees her husband as a natural communicator.

He will strike up conversations with strangers on the street with no effort, Rachel Wetchi said. 

"It's natural for him to connect and share," she said. "And he's a good leader because he knows how to empower people and help people do what they're best at doing."

Moving to a new country with new systems can be overwhelming for people, Rachel said, but Wetchi's shows help people make sense of their new home while also entertaining them with familiar music and language.

Not only has Wetchi created the African Varieties Shows, but he also has a show on Big Heavy World dedicated to French-speaking Catholic Africans.

Samedi Matin (Saturday Morning) airs from 8:30 to 10 a.m. and previews the following morning's mass at St. Joseph's in French. He shares a translation of the sermon, scripture readings and Congolese and African-style religious music. Sometimes he has musicians from his church play live on the show.

Mireille Dasilva, a member of the Congolese community, said Jules is a connector within the African population of Burlington. Even within the Congolese community, there are many different people and cultures, Dasilva said but he knows how to navigate the differences.

"He's patient," she said. "We're so different, so to deal with all of us, it's very, very hard."

Wetchi also has relationships with city and state leaders. The City of Burlington noticed Wetchi's African Varieties Show and its effectiveness and hired him as a liaison in their Trusted Community Voices program in 2021. The program was created to form better communication pathways between the city government and Burlington's immigrant and minority communities. Wetchi likes this model.

"No one can speak for us," Wetchi said. "So we need, ourselves, to speak up and help our community because we know their psychology, we know what they want."

Molly Gray met Wetchi soon after she was elected as lieutenant governor and invited him to speak about health equity at one of her regular panel discussions.

"I think Jules' leadership is a model for Vermont in being able to bring community together in a culturally appropriate way to share extremely important health information," Gray said. "We as a state should be relying on Jules' expertise and expertise of different cultural leaders to do better."

While he currently does his three shows as an act of service to his community, preparing for them takes time and energy, Wetchi said. With three small children and a full-time and part-time job, he finds himself up into the early hours of the morning some nights prepping for a show.

Wetchi's dream is to start a nonprofit that would give all New Americans in the Burlington area a chance to have shows like his. He hopes to one day have a whole channel for New Americans to share information and culture in their own languages and a physical space for them to produce the shows. But this would take funds he does not yet have.

Dasilva said seeing and hearing Wetchi brings her hope for the future of Africans in Vermont.

"Especially in Vermont, I remember when we came here 20 years ago, we didn't have a lot of people, and some people, they're scared, they don't always know which door to knock," Dasilva said. "But him, whatever he's doing, he gives other people hope. This is a white state, you know... but he's given other people hope, you know, they can do it."