Some of the Health Fair Services that were offered included:
Grace Resource Ministries sponsored a free community health fair & health professionals career pathway on Aug 6, 2022, at Roberts Park and Community Center, 1300 E. Martin Street, Raleigh, NC.
Some of the Health Fair Services that were offered included:
The community service also included Career Pathway Advising and captured the following careers among others:
We are grateful to our amazing Sponsors who include:
Since in 2020 Grace Resource Ministries (GRM)has been empowering and inspiring communities all-over the world through health literacy, mobilizing and provision of health resources, and teaching scripture on health. This is in response to the call of the Great Commission of going to all the world doing what Jesus did… doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil.
Over December 2021 and January 2022, GRM mission team was in Kenya to minister, encourage and pray for the vulnerable especially the sick, orphans, widows, and the poor families. The team also donated foodstuffs and medical supplies.
During the mission, GRM came across two women: Mary and Elizabeth, whose are needy.
Mary Wanjiru
Mary Wanjiru is a mother of 7 children and lives in a poorly built mabati (tin) room in Ruiru, Kiambu County (Kenya). She is on treatment for stage 2 breast cancer, uncontrolled hypertension, HIV+, and depression.
Born in Rift Valley, she is a survivor of 1982 tribal clashes in which her parents and siblings were killed. Out of desperation, she married young. Unfortunately her husband died of Aids after her 7th child was born. One of her children, who is also epileptic, conceived (from rape) at 12 years of age.
To survive, Mary scavenges for recyclable trash while competing with street boys and sells it earning a maximum of Kenya Shillings 70 ($0.7). The little she gets is inadequate to meet her basic and medical needs. Sometimes, she is kicked out of her house for lack of rent payment thus her and her children end up in the street.
Three of her children are HIV+, her last born is diabetic and has a heart condition while two other children live in the streets due to poor living conditions.
Out of the dire situations Mary has faced, she has attempted to kill herself and her children several times, ending up in jail until the magistrate ordered her to be evaluated for depression.
Against all odds, Mary struggles to find money to buy medicines (except for HIV drugs which are free). She sometimes resorts to selling her body in exchange for rent, food, and medications.
Attached below is a video clip of her interview:
Elizabeth
Elizabeth is a mother of three boys and suffers from HIV+ among other diseases. Among the three boys, one of them is blind. Beth cannot afford food, rent, medicine and school fees. Recently, one of her children (a 2-year-old) was raped sustaining injuries and needs help to access medication even as they hope justice will be done. Elizabeth cannot afford to hire an attorney and is requesting for public help to secure an attorney or help bring this wickedness to justice.
Appeal
The women sometimes receive help from a local organization known as Hephzibah Project, but the organization cannot meet their recurrent needs as it serves 30 women who are HIV positive and have children. These women need rent, food, toiletries, school fees, and medical care among other needs.
Attempts were made to help these women secure jobs and/or start small businesses but they were either laid off during COVID-19 pandemic or lost their businesses. Others have lost ability to work or run businesses due to being too sickly and having children that are sick and need personal daily care.
In response to the Great Commission, GRM is appealing to donate in cash or kind to help Mary’s and Elizabeth’s family live a decent life in Ruiru, Kenya. Your contribution will help them afford shelter, food, clothes, medication, education for their children, and start small business to sustain them.
Mary’s and Elizabeth’s cases are just two of the many needy cases that we have highlighted. For further enquiries or clarifications, Please contact Grace Resource Ministries via:
Phone: 919-480-1009
Email: info@graceresourceministries.org
You can donate via: PayPal
In December 2021 and January 2022, Grace Resource Ministries (GRM) mission team visited Kenya to minister, encourage and pray for the vulnerable: the sick, orphans, widows, and the poor families.
Some of the organizations that we visited and ministered to include Hephzibah project (Ruiru), El Shaddai Children’s Home Limuru, Githogoro Slum (Runda), Full Gospel Church.
Here are the highlights:
Donated Bibles to the new converts.
We thank you for your great support through prayers, financial and material donations. We give glory to God.
Health literacy has been identified as a priority area for national action in the United States, first by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an objective for Healthy People 2010 (HHS, 2000), and again in the Institute of Medicine report Health Literacy. In addition, National Action Plan envisioned plans to provide everyone with access to accurate and actionable health information.
Without clear information and an understanding of prevention and self-management of conditions, people are more likely to skip necessary medical tests. They also end up in the emergency room more often, and they have a hard time managing chronic diseases. Health literacy deficits affect half the American patient population and are linked to poor health, ineffective disease management, and high rates of hospitalization. Restricted literacy has also been linked with less satisfying medical visits and communication difficulties, particularly in terms of the interpersonal and informational aspects of care.
Limited health literacy affects people of all ages, races, incomes, and education levels, but the impact of limited health literacy disproportionately affects lower socioeconomic and minority groups. It affects people’s ability to search for and use health information, adopt healthy behaviors, and act on important public health alerts. Limited health literacy is also associated with worse health outcomes and higher costs. It is worth noting that people with limited health literacy—a third of U.S. adults—are at particularly high risk of poor health outcomes from chronic conditions. Currently, more than sixty percent of adults in the United States have a chronic condition, such as diabetes, hypertension, or depression, and 40 percent have multiple chronic conditions, and many adults are at risk of developing chronic conditions.
Health literacy has been identified as a priority area for national action in the United States:
First, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). According to HHS’ Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Health literacy is in the ACA because health policy makers recognized that activated and informed patients are on the critical path to increasing access to coverage and managing costs. These are the goals of the ACA. Health literacy is mentioned dozens of times, directly or indirectly, in the ACA because policy makers understand health care cannot be reformed in any meaningful way without health literate patients.
Secondly, the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy was launched in May 2010.
Thirdly, the Plain Language Act signed into law in October 2010 made all federal agencies practice what they preached.
In mid-2010, I received report that my dad fell hurting his ribs. My mom, who was visited at the time, packed up her bags and left to go take care of him. Sooner or later, our family was hit with the bad news—our dad had been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. And so, the long journey started.
My dad would have periods of feeling sick and too weak, frequent doctor visits, hospitalizations, oral chemotherapy cycles, and finally dialysis. I will never forget the many times when he struggled to take 80 Dexathemasone tablets. Tablets higher than 1mg doses were not available, despite nausea and vomiting.
How could I ever forget a staff asking us to prepay for a blocked dialysis catheter to be removed? If we did not pay, I guess it would have been okay to let him live with it or bleed to death. Did I mention there was no education to neither him nor caregivers? Or guidance in purchasing medications from the pharmacy of the absolute best hospital in the country (per his Primary Care Physician’s recommendation)? Then, we received a call that he had been given another patient’s medication.
Dad was a church and community leader. He was the best man that ever lived (besides Jesus). He had many visitors, but few to none were aware of his most needed rest, quietness, encouragement, physical assistance, risks of infection, and respite care.
Nevertheless, in 2014, God gave him favor by enabling him to take a trip to Israel, a country he always wanted to visit. Unfortunately, he fell sick on his way home from Israel, and, approximately 2 weeks later, he passed away.
It is this story and the many untold stories that are in many people’s hearts and mind that have birthed the vison of Grace Resource Ministries.
Grace Resource Ministries is a vision in honor of my/our dad, David C. Kamau. Rest in peace, Dad.
This, and many real stories like this are the reason I am who I am today. A woman with a heart to make a difference in people’s lives and to be a blessing to anyone with a health challenge by bringing information to them. Scripture says, people perish due to lack of knowledge…
*****
Eva Kamau is a mother of two great young men with a heart to serve the people. By profession, I am a nurse with over 20 years of experience in home care, nursing homes, assisted living, medical rehabilitation, hospital, and utilization management/care management. My journey in nursing started as a licensed practical nurse, later bridged to registered nursing, bachelors and finally master’s in health administration.
