For Immediate Release

Contact: Melissa McSwegin, GHA Program Manager
Phone: 404-634-5748 x220
Fax: 404-634-9685
E-mail: mmcswegin@globalhealthaction.org

GHA LEAPs into DeKalb County Schools

Friday, February 22, 2008 (Atlanta, GA) For a second school year, Global Health Action (GHA) is bringing its Leadership, Empowerment, Action and Health Promotion (LEAP) Program to two DeKalb County middle schools. After going through a competitive process, two middle schools have been selected to host the LEAP Program for the spring of 2008. Approximately 40-50 girls in the 7th and 8th grade will participate in LEAP at Columbia Middle School during the school day and at Shamrock Middle School as part of an after-school program. Additionally, GHA has initiated development of a facilitator manual which it expects to complete by the end of 2008. The facilitator manual will enable GHA to train additional interns and volunteers in hopes of expanding the program to serve even more girls in DeKalb County. GHA has also started a pilot program to modify the LEAP curriculum for adolescent boys.

GHA’s LEAP Program focuses on leadership development, reproductive health education, and cultural issues for at-risk American, immigrant, and refugee teen girls ages 10-15 years in Metro Atlanta. The goal of LEAP is to prepare girls for the personal and social challenges they face in their adolescent years and equip them with the tools they need to address difficult issues such as peer pressure, negative body image, and physical changes. They also learn to identify problems in their community and develop solutions to address them through the execution of a community action project. Since completion of the pilot program in 2000, GHA has facilitated workshops for many Metro Atlanta youth-serving agencies such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Center for Pan-Asian Community Services, and Refugee Family Services, as well as the DeKalb County School System, and has been able to touch hundreds of girls.

For 35 years, Global Health Action has served the health needs of individuals, communities and countries through five programmatic initiatives: Leadership and Management Training, HIV/AIDS, Women's Health and Reproductive Health, Primary Health Care and Second Generation Organizations. To date, GHA has trained more than 8,500 community and health leaders in the United States and 89 other countries. For more information, contact Melissa McSwegin (contact information above).

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Contact: Leigh Wynne, GHA Program Manager or Dr. Jean-Eliot Pierre in Haiti
Phone: 404-634-5748 x230
Fax: 404-634-9685
E-mail: lwynne@globalhealthaction.org or epierre@globalhealthaction.org

Celebrating Women's Health in Petit Goave, Haiti on Thursday, May 25, 2006 

Global Health Action’s (GHA's) Child Survival Project, the Ministry of Health, the Coordination of Development Programs (COD) of the Methodist Church in Haiti, have collaborated since 2004 to improve the health of women and infants and to provide better health care in the region.  On May 25, 2006, there was a parade celebrating the importance of improving women’s health.  As an additional benefit, the Notre Dame Hospital in the town of Petit Goave provided free care and consultation.  The parade and free care and consultation was coordinated and sponsored by the Child Survival project.   Of the approximately 125,800 people living in Petit Goave, 25% are women of reproductive age and 11% are children under 5 years of age.  Haiti has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Caribbean with between 500 and 1,000 deaths per 100,000 births. 

 Local women's community banks, which are clubs that grant small micro-enterprise loans, created banners that depict important health issues particularly focused on maternal and child health. GHA and its partners provided transportation for the women’s groups to participate in the May 25^th celebration.  The banners used text and imagery to express their “story” on the following topics: Safe Pregnancy, Safe Birth, Safe Delivery, Infant Care, Maternal Care, HIV/AIDS, Family Planning and Hygiene.  The women's groups carried their banners during the parade.  The parade ended in front of the Notre Dame hospital where all women were able to receive a free medical consultation and/or check-up from a doctor.

 For 33 years, Global Health Action has served the health needs of individuals, communities and countries through five programmatic initiatives: Leadership and Management Training, HIV/AIDS, Women's Health and Reproductive Health, Primary Health Care and Second Generation Organizations.  To date, GHA has trained more than 4,000 community leaders in Haiti inclusive of goat farmers, Community Health Workers and Traditional Birth Attendants, and part of the 7,000 health and community leaders trained by Global Health Action in the United States and 89 countries worldwide.For more information, you can contact Leigh Wynne (contact information above) or Dr. Jean-Eliot Pierre in Haiti at epierre@globalhealthaction.org.