Milestones at BayHeal February 2014-June 2015: Strategic Plan 2014-2015

1. February 2014

• Compiling and Mapping a list of venues and events where Africans in the Bay Area live and socialize.
• familiarizing excursion around the Bay Area first and last Sunday of the month.
• Making a list of Universities, Education Institutes, Colleges and Schools where Africans go to.
• The idea of Bay Area Healthy Living and Communication Support as a distinct health information, education, communication, equity and disparity stop gapping organization. Not to replace or replicate what "other civil rights" organizations are doing. This is an "essential" commodity/ consumer services organization.
• Designed an inception note.
• Designed a yearly strategic volunteer plan to meet and greet Americans and Africans.

2. March 2014

• Field excursion to generate health needs for Africans following the Ebola Epidemic in Africa.
• Borrowed $ 1,900 from Mr. Selwyn Jones to help me meet the expenses of meeting and talking to Africans in the Bay Area.
• Joined the UCSF/ACTG/CAB as a volunteer.

3. April 2014

• Purchase a Toshiba laptop to use during research and note taking in the field.
• Purchase a mobile Phone to provide communication link with various respondents.
• Continuing with the research work

4. May 2014-September 2014

• Travel to meet Africans in the Bay Area ( Richmond, Dublin-Pleasanton, Millbrae, San Jose..).
• Compare experiences with San Rafael, Oakland, Daly City and San Francisco.
• Ebola Epidemic continues to affect the way Africans socialize and work.
• Volunteer with African Advocacy Network as a health Strategist.
• Press conference and awareness raising on impact of Discrimination, Ebola and need to engage Africans and Americans in conversation/dialogue to address misconceptions.
• A draft of the Bay Area Healthy Living Support and Communication Platform ready.
• Literature review on immigration health in USA and California.
• Drafted and disseminated Key Informant Guide questions among Africans living in Bay Area.
• Work on a social calendar that lists places and social events in which Africans are seen in large numbers continues.
• A template for Universal Social and Cultural Events for Africans in the Bay Area emerges. (USEs/UCEs). This can be used as a mobilization tool.

5. October 2014-June 2015

• Designing a front loader organization, easily managed that will not be bogged down by rhetoric and no action once we start implementing.
• Identifying African originated  viable Community based Social Organizations or Venues ( E.g. Angola/Mozambique singing group that meets at Silver Spoons-24th/Mission; Balboa Restaurant; Ashkenaz in Berkeley; Kenyan Community Harambee in San Leandro, Castro Valley, Richmond; Ugandan Community in Antioch, San Rafael; Berkeley, Oakland;  Zimbabwean Community in San Jose; Nigerian/Ghanaian/Sierra Leonean/Gambian Communities; Tanzanian Communities meeting at the Lutheran Church in Oakland; the Islamic Mosques as meeting places for various Africans & Sports/Recreation/Music/Dance/Drama as a galvanizing entity for Africans especially Eritreans, Somali and Ethiopians; using Radio and Facebook by Ugandans, Kenyans, Nigerians, Sudanese and South Sudanese).
• Identifying and scouting for Board of Directors to report to and help galvanize leadership to results as well as value for money outputs.
• Interacted with, asked the support, help, or guidance of: Professor Annie Luetkemeyer, Dr. Paul Volberding, Dr. Hiroyu Hatano, Paul Klees, Jack Beck, Austin Padilla, Goma Bobo, Samuel Mwangi, Dr. Kiapi Sandra, Dan Katende, Githongo Watua, Derrick Mapp, Jay, Mike Ochieng, Bhamira Augustine, Vasco Da-Gama, Lopez M. and other eminent persons.
• Registered as not-for-profit (CORP ID: 3790333).
• Plan to have bank account
• Share June 2015-May 2016 Strategic Plan( office Space, Key/Resource Tool, Training African Leaders & engaging service providers.
• Fundraise
• Resource mobilization
• Received our Tax ID/EIN: 47-4266549.

Immigrant Health Resources in USA brought to you by Bay Area Healthy Living Support and Communication Platform

We bring you 5 aspects that will help you make better decisions about how you can benefit from an array of health services in USA. Remember quality, longer life is possible when you engage in health seeking practices. At BayHeal, we emphasize diet, play and mental health.

The United States of America's CDC has information on immigrant health. It is not just a collection of reports but guidance for all service providers. Our editors bring some resources on immigrant health in USA. By immigrant we mean: refugees, undocumented persons in USA, asylum seekers and visitors. For more information, see link below:

1. http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/index.html

Bay Heal will bring you State-level or Community based health service points and venues through a compiled key or desk review or a diary. As much as possible try getting individual mandate, an employer mandate, expansion of publicly funded insurance, or a combination of these. Remember Insurance policies affect immigrants’ health care experiences and, subsequently, their health status. 

There are implications for access, quality, and cost of care for immigrants. For more on this:

2. http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/26/5/1258.full

You can have health insurance plans and this next link shows you how to negotiate a personal policy. Yes, you need to polish your teeth ( dental care), may be you need a transplant and your basic insurance does not cover it?

This link is for you or your family:

3. http://www.immigrationhealth.com.

The term comprehensive immigration Reform in USA should interest you our reader. We feel this link is very helpful:

4. http://genprogress.org/voices/2010/11/04/15975/weekly-diaspora-immigration-reform-falls-to-the-gop

As an immigrant ensure you get in the employable bracket please. The employment rate (the percentage of the population that has a job) is a far better indicator of the health of the economy than the unemployment rate (the % of those seeking jobs that don’t have one). People with jobs are what supports the economy and the mere fact that someone removes themselves from the workforce does not make the economy healthier. In fact, the percentage of the population that is not in the labor force is at its highest level in 36 years. In both January and February 2015, the seasonally unadjusted labor force participation rate was 62.5%. That means that 37.5% were not participating in the labor force[2]. The last time the labor force participation rate sunk to these levels was in 1978, when it was 62.8%. for more on this, the link below will throw more light on the subject:

5.http://soundbytes2.com/2015/03/18/how-healthy-is-our-economy

6. http://www.cis.org/HealthCare-Immigration

We hope to become the one stop point for health issues among African immigrant populations in USA.

This organization promotes healthy living among African Immigrants

EDITORS' WALL

Having interacted with Africans and recent immigrants from Africa in the Bay area for one full year, from January 2014 to May 2015, I have tried gathering information on number of immigrants from Africa living in the entire Bay Area. Anecdotal information estimates give about 30,000 African, Atlantic & Indian ocean Islands-born immigrants above 21 years live in the entire Bay Area. In presenting this note I hope to reach out to whoever can support the desire for promoting practices that in turn improve on quality of life, mental-health and nutrition of beneficiaries (whose population estimation was arrived at anecdotally).

Africans who are new in America are faced with challenges that in turn affect the way they access health care services and the way they engage in healthy living.  A paucity of tailored and funded programs catering to  essential ‘diet, play and mental health’ among Africans has left them to access other integration and social services which are well funded but subsume the need for a stand-alone DPM program.  This is a gap that can be filled by a dedicated communication for behavior change. This is what Bay Heal was founded to do.

The fifteen Health needs among recent immigrants from Africa

1. Popularizing registration for Health Insurance-Medical.

2. Popularizing registration for Health Insurance-Dentical.

3. Access to/ and making popular the usage of such programs like; RAPID (Rapid Anti-retroviral Program Initiative for new diagnoses).

4. Mobilization towards contributing population group in the San Francisco ground zero to HIV initiative (“a first city in the world with no new infections, no stigma and no deaths”).

5. Getting involved in initiatives that erase financial and social barriers to get tested and treated for HIV/Hepatitis/STIs (e.g., benefiting from early ARV initiation, “universal” testing and avoidance of beachheads).

6. Building structures against stigma related to attending hospitals and other tendencies towards excuses to avoid hospitals or health care initiatives (e.g., using African community “elders,” “mama,” “uncles” and community/social events).

7. Initiate a poster person as a drive targeting long-stay Africans (who are now residents) and new immigrants from Africa on the path to documented residents.

8. Families with under-21 year olds need to know and be attached to “under 21 clinics" and Nutrition education.

9. Play and recreation as one way to maintain manageable body-mass index.

10. Negotiating the benefits’ structure following a given diagnosis.

11. Negotiating and accessing services of a well-mother/woman clinic for women/females.

12. Mapping out and networking with other service providers

13. Design/disseminate good Diet, Play and Mental Health (DPM) information, education, materials.

14. Develop Frequently Asked Questions along these or any other health outcomes..

15. Establish an executive Staff and Resource Center.

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Contact the Editors:

Bay Area Healthy Living and Communication Platform

1230 Market Street #150

San Francisco, CA 94102

E-mail: bayheal@gmail.com