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Catholic Healthcare West Grants $50,000 to Esperanca for Healthcare Initiative with Latino Community At-Risk for Obesity-Related Diseases
PHOENIX, Ariz. (Dec. 19, 2011)…Catholic Healthcare West has awarded grant funding in the amount of $50,000 to Esperança to educate and improve the lives of Latino adults and children in the Golden Gate Community who are at-risk for obesity-related diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
“For years, we’ve been working in this community with SJHMC, the Golden Gate Community Center, Keogh Health Connection and Arizona State University to meet the health needs of the residents,” said Tom Egan, president and CEO of Esperança. “Members of the community are disproportionately non-English-speaking, poor, uninsured and have low levels of education. These factors increase the risk that people will develop obesity and related complications such as hypertension and diabetes and receive inadequate prevention and treatment interventions. “
The funding provided by Catholic Healthcare West will allow Esperança to provide community health fairs, cooking classes, adult and child nutrition and fitness classes and more.
“Our goal is two-fold, we want to provide educational information and classes to the Golden Gate community to prevent and control these diseases from occurring while coordinating with other agencies to provide a seamless continuum of care for residents at-risk for hypertension and diabetes,” said Egan. “Hypertension, obesity and diabetes are preventable diseases that cost our healthcare system billions of dollars. What our partners at Catholic Healthcare West realize is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
About Esperança
Since 1970, Esperanca has been providing programs to improve the health and well being of the world’s poor. Our programs include volunteer surgical missions, health education, training of community health workers, home building, clean water projects, micro enterprise, agricultural development, dental treatment and prevention, and donation of medical equipment and supplies to more than 14 countries. Our goal is to build clean, sustainable and healthy communities worldwide. To learn more, visit: www.esperanca.org.