Students host health fair in West Baltimore

Hopkins students came out in droves on Saturday to volunteer their time at Project Prevent's Second Annual Health Fair. The event, which was held in West Baltimore, was organized by Project Prevent in conjunction with Academic Advisor Adrienne Breckinridge and the Hopkins group HOPE.

The event took place at the Love Center, which is part of Agape Miracle Church in Park Heights. "In terms of the location, we chose the Love Center for several reasons including its geographical location; the facility is situated in the Park Heights neighborhood of West Baltimore, an area that is particularly lacking in resources. In fact, the area currently has both the largest urban renewal initiative in the country and the highest rate of new cases of HIV infection," said Tannaz Rasouli, one of the three co-chairs of Project Prevent.

The health fair provided a variety of services such as lead poisoning screening, blood pressure screening, vision and glaucoma testing, glucose testing for diabetes. They also offered free immunizations, HIV/AIDS confidential screenings, substance abuse screening and depression screenings.

Project Prevent's mission is to eliminate barriers to health care, educate individuals in the community, and provide them with free primary care services. Co-chair Solmaz Prizadeh stated, "Our primary goal was to provide the greatest number of health services to the community as possible, and we particularly wanted to focus on diseases and conditions that were prevalent in the African American and Hispanic communities."

For entertainment, Project Prevent organized an African Drama Dance group, Westsider's Marching Band, fire truck tours, face painting and magic shows featuring JHU's "Spiffnick Hopkins." The JHU Gospel Choir sang at the fair, and Senior Paul Agustin served as the DJ for the event. Project Prevent Co-chair Lily Daniali stated, "The entertainment drew people out of their homes ... Once they heard the drums, it drew them out of their homes. It created trust between us and the community."

Members from multiple campus groups volunteered their time on Saturday. "At the fair, we had a total of about 50-60 volunteers from several Hopkins groups including HOPE, Salud (to help interpret for our Spanish speaking attendees), APO, and the Peace Corps, as well as several Hopkins students who volunteered without any affiliation to any specific group," Rasouli said.

To publicize the fair, members of Project Prevent asked community organizations, schools, stores, local churches and the Love Center to distribute flyers and spread the word. Project Prevent members also posted flyers around Park Heights. "Probably the most affective outreach ... was our direct flyering. We essentially took thousands of flyers and taped them up on every lamp post, stop sign and bus stop that we could find, and made our case to anyone that passed by for about a whole week before the fair, as well as on the day of. We went from barber shops to gas stations and handed out flyers, and begged businesses to let us put signs up in their windows," Rasouli stated.

Park Heights residents and community outreach organizations alike said they felt that the community benefited from the health services that were present. "The fair is in the right neighborhood - the services provided are things that everyone in the community needs to know about," said Ayanna Summerville, who attended the fair with her young daughter.

Robyn Priest, a member of UMD's Department of Ophthalmology, concurred, as did Shiela Woodley, a member of Agape Miracle Church. "This is a phenomenal event, and the people in the community are benefiting greatly. We're bringing them out, they're participating. It's a great turnout ... I hope we can do this every year. It's a blessing to this community," Woodley said.

Pastor Eleanor Bryant, head of Agape Miracle Church, added, "This represents the church, community and university coming together, and that's very powerful.