2021 ONPA Pictures of the Year

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Jacintha Betti kisses her daughter, Aidrielyann in their yard in Union City, Ohio, on September 9, 2021. Jacintha moved to the United States from the Republic of the Marshall Islands after falling in love with her boyfriend, Michael, while he and his dad visited the islands. Most people migrate to the U.S. from the Republic of the Marshall Islands for job opportunities.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Shellyanne Aknilang holds Aidrielyann and Amari back from playing with her grandmother, Lorene's, oxygen tank in Union City, Ohio, on November 11, 2021. It is very important in Marshallese culture that one’s parents are well taken care of. In the Joash family, both aging parents Jay and Lorene are cared for by their children and other younger relatives. With Lorene dealing with a tumor and Jay recovering from a stroke he experienced in 2017, the return of Medicare has greatly improved both their wellbeing and their children's ability to help them get the care they need. Lorene finds herself hospitalized frequently, although she would prefer to be home.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Robinson Lee shows his Republic of the Marshall Islands passport in Celina, Ohio, on November 7, 2021. In his experience, few people in Ohio have immediately known about the Marshall Islands and the nation’s relationship with the U.S., resulting in rejected passports and other services being denied to him and others. "We are the children they neglected," he says of U.S. government assistance.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Birash Joash, left, talks with his mother, Lorene, before she is taken to the hospital in Union City, Ohio, on October 20, 2021. Lorene has had ongoing health issues since the early 2010's. It began with asthma, which she received treatments for, but progressed to the point where she passed out and slipped into a coma during a routine visit with her family in Arkansas. She was comatose for eight months. Then, they found a tumor in her lung. Many Marshallese community members attribute their experiences with cancer to the Cold War-era testing in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Birash Joash looks away while Aidrielyann, Jacintha, and Michael Joash watch the ambulance take Lorene to the hospital from their home in Union City, Ohio, on October 20, 2021. At the time, they weren't sure if she would be admitted to the hospital for care, or simply returned in the morning. Lorene is only ever home for one to two weeks before she begins having trouble breathing and her family must again call an ambulance and see her go. Her daughter, Primrose, sent in Lorene's Medicare application as soon as she possibly could once their eligibility had been reinstated, and believes her care has been drastically improved since then.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Lorene's husband, Jay, waits for her to return home. Whenever Lorene is not in the hospital, one of her children will help her clean her tracheostomy, which allows access for an artificial breathing tube to be inserted directly through a hole in her neck, and take her medications. The treatment process for Jay has been different. In 2017, Jay still worked. He had a job that covered his healthcare and paid the family's bills. However, one day, at a family friend's birthday party, he had a stroke. He sat down at a table and when he next moved to stand up, the right side of his entire body felt all wrong. Because he couldn't work, Jay was laid off. When the insurance plan covered by his employer ran out, Jay hadn't yet fully recovered and was still dealing with mobility issues on the right side of his entire body. While he could afford it, he bought his own insurance from Cobra. Eventually, this ran out as well. He still hadn't healed.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Michael helps Jay out of the car after they drove an hour and a half to visit Lorene in Kindred Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, on September 9, 2021. According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine Center, "After six months, improvements [from a stroke] are possible but will be much slower. Most stroke patients reach a relatively steady state at this point. For some, this means a full recovery. Others will have ongoing impairments." Since he has become eligible for Medicare once again, the family has had Jay on a waiting list to get an appointment with a local physical therapy center. He has been on this waiting list since the early summer of 2021. In December, he finally received an appointment. His sons, Michael and Birash, will be taking him to each session and will help him along his healing journey.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Michael Joash, center, hangs out with his brother, Isshi Joash, right, and his friend, Joseph Momita, left, after watching a volleyball tournament in Celina, Ohio on September 18, 2021. "It's just me returning the favor," says Michael Joash, on caring for his aging father, Jay. "It's just our duties to return the care and love he has given us all these years." The responsibility of caring for older generations is big, and one commonly shouldered throughout the Marshallese community.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Lydia Bolkheim, left, and Primrose Joash, center, discuss shipments for the Ralik Ratak Alele store, one of two Marshallese groceries in Celina, Ohio, on November 13, 2021. Lydia often helps people translate their online Medicare applications out of the store, which she runs with her fiance, Robinson Lee. Robinson has been planning to apply for grant funding to provide more Medicare application assistance, but the Marshallese Coalition has recently been disbanded following the approval of Medicaid for the community. "I am just waiting for something that can help," he says. Lydia's mother's side of the family were living on Rongelap Atoll at the time of the largest nuclear detonation tested on Bikini Atoll, called "Castle Bravo." Regarded as the worst radiological disaster in U.S. history, this explosion carried nuclear fallout along the wind currents to Rongelap. Lydia, along with many of her family members, has dealt with cancer which she attributes to the tests. Because of restrictive Medicare availability, she has had to travel to other states for care in the past.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Robinson Lee cries after listening to the anthem of Bikini Atoll, the place that he and his family were forcibly removed from to make way for nuclear testing in the Pacific during the 1950s, in Celina, Ohio, on November 14, 2021. "Most of my ancestors are gone now, or at least those who left Bikini and were promised they could go back," says Robinson, owner of the Ralik Ratak Alele store in Celina, Ohio. "The struggle that they went through, the hard times that they went through, the starvation that they went through ... Every time I hear [the Bikini Atoll anthem], it reminds me of those stories and the broken promises."

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Mike Capelle and Liner Bolkheim talk about Liner’s hopes to go to college for a career in dermatology in Celina, Ohio, on November 14, 2021. Mike and other community members help younger students find their goals in life every week by going in and mentoring them, providing great role models from within the Marshallese community. He and the other mentors have found that this program is one of the best ways to help youth find what they really want to do in life so that they can earn a living. When these jobs provide healthcare, the individuals will be less beholden to the restrictive limits of Medicare.

First place, Feature Picture Story - Erin Burk / Ohio University, "Medicare"

Snow settles on a field in Union City, Ohio, on November 14, 2021. After the Castle Bravo test at Bikini Atoll on March 1st, 1954, nuclear fallout settled like snowflakes, covering Rongelap Atoll. The locals thought it was snow until it burned their skin with just a touch. According to the National Cancer Institute, a projected "55% of all cancers [on Rongelap] might be attributed to fallout exposure." Since Medicare and Medicaid have been reinstated to the COFA agreement, the Marshallese community experiences a much easier time accessing healthcare — though it will take time to recover from the 25-year period in which they were left without.