Upcoming Event: To Your Health

AAHI Community,
THIS Saturday, April 30th, Holy Cross Hospital will be hosting a FREE health fair offering education exhibits and screenings! There will be preventative screenings for cancer including prostate-specific antigen, digital rectal examination, clinical breast exam and pap test. Also, there will be glucose and cholesterol screenings. Screenings are first come first served. Please inform your family and friends of this event, it is very beneficial for our community.
Date: April 30, 2011
Time: 10:00am-2:00pm (registration begins at 8:00am)
Location: Holy Cross Hospital, Professional Community Education Center
1500 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910
*Fee parking will be available in the Dameron Employee Garage on Forest Glen Road & Dameron Drive.

For additional information and/or to register, you can call 301-754-8800 or view the flier for more information.

Upcoming Workshop: MCDHHS 101

As part of the Empowering Community Health Organizations (E.C.H.O.) Project 2011, AAHI is hosting a series of practical and professional technical assistance training workshops to empower and enhance the ability of community leaders to develop culturally and linguistically competent health programming to serve Asian Americans in Montgomery County.

This spring's first free workshop will provide an overview of resources and services of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (MCDHHS), information about state and federally funded health programs, and the availability and accessibility of local resources for YOUR community. Community leaders and organizational representatives who serve Asian Americans in Montgomery County are encouraged to attend.

Date: Thursday, May 19th
Time: 5:30pm – 8:00pm
Location: Spring Room
Silver Spring Civic Building
1 Veterans Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Parking in the County garage is free upon exit after 6 p.m.
Space is limited. Please contact Atyya Chaudhry at Atyya.Chaudhry@montgomerycountymd.gov or at 240-777-1871 to RSVP by Friday, May 13th.

Wat Thai Songkran (New Years) Festival

On Sunday, April 17th, AAHI attended the Songkran Festival, celebrating the New Year at Wat Thai Washington DC Temple in Silver Spring. Although it was a blustery day, AAHI was warmed with the bright colors and celebrations of the event! AAHI setup a health information table and provided education on cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, heart health, nutrition and tobacco cessation. We utilized our 'Wheel of Health Education', an interactive educational game where participants spin a wheel and answer question on health topics, the topics at the festival were on tobacco, breast cancer and hepatitis B. AAHI also provided carbon monoxide screening to participants.

The festival was a wonderful event, drawing in crowds in the hundreds! There were other organizations present including Thai Alliance America, the Farmers Insurance Group and the Thai Embassy. In addition, many community members were selling food and cultural items. Our AAHI team enjoyed the event and we would like thank the Thai community for allowing us to be there!

Please view pictures of the event:

Past Event: Health Fair at Bait-ur-Rahman Mosque

This past Saturday, April 9th, AAHI partnered with the Bait-ur-Rahman Mosque in Silver Spring to host a Muslim women health fair. The health fair was one part of a weekend long sports tournament held at the Mosque. The nature of the even was to promote fitness and wellness and as result, the health fair was a great success! The community greatly benefited from the various screenings and health education provided by the vendors. Participants had the opportunity to receive bone density screenings, skin analysis screening, blood pressure and body mass index analysis. Participants were educated on various topics including cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, nutrition, wellness and much more!

In addition there was a wonderful presentation provided by a community physician on the topics of breast cancer and osteoporosis. The comprehensive lectures provided an overview of the health concerns, risk factors, symptoms, treatment and prevention. The community had the opportunity to soak in this information and educate their family and friends. To wrap-up the event, there was an interactive tai-chi demonstration to help educate women on the important of strengthening their bones.

The health fair had quite a turnout, there were over 200 participants! We want to sincerely thank all of our vendors for participating and continuing to support AAHI. In addition, we would like to thank our Health Promoters for continuously doing an amazing job and the Mosque and community volunteers for welcoming this health fair!

As this was an all women's event, the participants were not wearing their headscarves. To remain culturally sensitive, there are no pictures of the event.

Past Event: March Health Promoter Meeting

Last Thursday, March 31st, AAHI hosted their monthly Health Promoter meeting. For this meeting, AAHI invited the American Heart Association to conduct a training on heart and stroke health among Asian Americans. The training was very informative and relevant to Asian American health- did you know that heart disease is the second leading cause of death among Asian Americans, and stroke is the third leading cause of death?
These are important health issues in our community and now our Health Promoters are outfitted with the knowledge and tools to educate the community.

A special thank you to Roxanna and Jessica from the American Heart Association for a wonderful training!

You can view pictures here: