Welcome to Bay Area Healthy Living Support and Communication Platform.
BayHeal in short!
As we write this, at least 2,240 African Immigrant leaders have been told about this blog since November 2015.
At BayHeal, our mission (briefly) is to empower immigrants in the Bay Area to access healthy living skills as well as providing resources on Support Services in the Bay Area.
Our areas of intervention since November 2015:
a. Mental Health Services; where we have managed to link 12 beneficiaries to mental health support services.
b. Medical Check-ups; where we escorted 14 beneficiaries to hospitals as a way of reassurance.
c. Diet and Nutrition Panning; where we provided 72 talk sessions on dieting and nutrition planning.
d. Exercise and Play; we have provided 123 telephone based conversation with beneficiaries on aerobics and sports to encourage physical exercise among immigrants.
Bay Area Healthy Living Support and Communication Platform is an officially registered organization with the State of California.
The model of engagement is by working with existing African communities. It combines a snowball and peer-driven linkage contact mechanism.
We have so far identified venues and activities engaged in by different African Immigrant sub-groups.
a. West Africans meet during the food and culture shows mainly at Berkeley BART Station.
b. Tanzanians meet under the auspices of the Lutheran Faith based Community activities in Oakland.
c. Ugandans meet during the African Martyrs' day celebration as well as Uganda independence day in Oakland, Palo Alto and Antioch.
d. Kenyans meet during their community self help meetings called Harambee in San Leandro, Richmond, Concord and Oakland.
e. Zimbabweans, Zambians, South Africans meet during an annual award meeting and cultural fares. The most recent was in San Jose and at San Francisco Public Library.
f. Mozambicans and Angolans meet at Silver Spoons and there they have a music band.
g. Congolese, Eritreans and Ethiopians have dedicated and registered organizations in Oakland and San Francisco. They meet regularly at these venues.
h. Eritreans in San Francisco and Alameda Counties have established coping and resilience structures managed by their chosen leaders.
i. Ethiopians in San Francisco, SunnyDale and Bayview areas have established senior support services to meet the needs of aging Ethiopian-Americans.
j. The different restaurants and corner stores owned and run by African immigrants will act as pick up points for IEC materials on health (physical and mental), physical activity and nutrition.
k. Eritreans and Somalis as much as other immigrants celebrate their mother country's independence days. This is an ample time to meet and greet the community members.
We have used scientific approaches to engage African Immigrants in owning skills to demand or avail themselves the different health promotion services.
We have mapped out a range of biological, social, environmental and physical factors linked to health promotion. We used this to continue counseling and encouraging healthy living.
We have consulted with experts and practitioners in different areas to develop and synthesize a working model for information sharing to improve connectivity by African immigrants in USA.
Working with immigrants is fulfilling and hopefully our efforts help provide desire for living a positive quality life for all.
We shall use this blog to provide written reports or documents as a way of keeping the information flowing.
Thank you
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