Projects
March 5, 2018 White Cross – South Africa Galilean Health Kits for Health Builders
Health Kits Global Gifts
[pie chart]43%Support Raised
[world map] Africa South Africa push-pin South Africa
Health and Wellness Health and Wellness
GoalThe goal of this project is to enhance the health, well-being and medical literacy of disadvantaged South Africans and others.
SummaryThis White Cross project seeks to raise $17,497 annually in order to train and equip Health Builders in South Africa as they master skills in order to assess health and promote disease prevention.
DescriptionDrs. Anita and Rick Gutierrez serve in the KZN province of South Africa, an area known for having some of the highest HIV rates in the world. This is a region where every 3rd person is HIV positive, and every 4th or 5th person is diabetic. While unemployment and underemployment of youth is 50%, the cost for basic health supplies, equipment, transport, and internet communication are available at reasonable prices. This makes it possible to estimate the impact that health training will have on impoverished communities which have a proportionately larger disease burden. The people sense a great need to learn new things that will help improve their situation since so many of them experience chronic health conditions. They are highly motivated to try new things because they see loved ones suffering and dying. In the last few years, almost everyone in South Africa has a cell phone and WhatsApp access. Health animations and videos addressing pertinent health information in their own language can be formatted and sent directly to their phone and shared more broadly in their community. Half of the funding for this project will go toward animation and video creation as the need for these resources will grow in the future. The other half of the funding will train and equip women and men in mastering basic health skills including how to measure blood pressure, diabetes, HIV, and COVID pulse oximetry. These trained Health Builders learn other relevant health promotion and disease prevention activities that are useful as they make home visits and encourage people with major health problems. They engage the broader community in larger public health screening events as a way of showing God’s love to the community. The project total cost is $52,940 for 3 years, or $17,497 per year.
Suggested GiftsA gift of $1,000 will buy 4 large tents, 8 folding plastic tables and 30 folding chairs for the screening clinics. A gift of $5,000 will produce 20 minutes of high-quality 2D health animation with translation and voice artist into one language. A gift of $10,000 will train and equip 50 women and men to screen blood pressure, sugar and HIV, and serve their neighborhoods as Health Builders.
Prayer RequestsPray that this project will show love to the community as they are engaged in larger public health screening events and home visits from Health Builders. Pray that the health videos and animations will benefit as many as 150,000 viewers over the three year funding cycle of this project. Pray for the Health Builders as they are trained in mastering basic skills that will promote health and disease prevention.
Managed ByGutierrez, Anita & Rick