Graduate Student Helping Women Go Red
Story:
by Purvi Mehta
The idea of starting a program targeting the Asian Indian community came about from a community mobilization class I was taking during winter quarter. I discussed the idea with the Health Promotion and Education faculty, who directed me towards the American Heart Association. A meeting was shortly set up, and the idea took off from there. We called the program the Go Red Sari program, as it showed a direct relationship with the Indian community. I was put in charge of getting the program on its feet, and after researching and speaking with community members and Go Red partners in the Cincinnati area, I was able to form a network of partners. To make the campaign even more interesting, I contacted some people I knew in Atlanta and decided to run some events there. The goal for this year was to increase awareness of heart disease in Asian Indian women; in this particular group, heart disease is highly prevalent.
In the spring of 2009, we held a happy hour in both cities to bring the awareness of this new campaign. A huge interest was shown for this program in both cities! After this event, we held need assessments in both cities, to figure out how to meet the needs of the community. Based on the information gathered, we started building a base fitness guide and cooking guide geared for Asian Indians. In order to launch the new information while raising awareness, I began to put together the next event- Go Red Sari @ Maserati. For this event, a silent auction and raffle were planned. Maserati of Cincinnati was able to donate their dealership as a venue to hold our event, and gave us a weekend lease to raffle off to help gain funds for the program.
This event was the biggest event Go Red Sari has put together thus far. We had about 100 Asian Indians attend, with a wide range of age groups. It was a cocktail hour event, with a cooking demo by Cumin, and the venue itself lured many individuals to our event. Organizing this event helped build numerous relationships with businesses throughout Cincinnati. While we would like to have more Asian Indians come to events, there was a jump in numbers from 30 to 100 attendees. Also, aside from Maserati, Mercedes has also been a great support for our program.
Additionally, FITHO.IN has helped the program tremendously, especially with the fitness and cooking guides. They have also set up a website for us, http://fitho.in/etc/goredsari/. (You can join their newsletter, to get daily health tips via email, to help keep you fit and healthy!) It is important for us to keep in mind that this year was primarily to raise awareness, with the hopes of getting the community to be more active about their heart health during 2010, year two of the campaign.
At the end of the day, the experience was extremely rewarding. I was able to do something for my community within my professional field. While it is hard to get many members of the community to be active on the issue, it is rewarding to see the few that have taken steps towards improvement. This year has been quite a learning experience, as this campaign involves cultivating relationships with businesses and community organizations. I have been fortunate to get the help of most, as they are interested in this event as well. The Maserati event was a very unique event that will not be forgotten by those that attended as well as myself. Being able to apply concepts learned in the classroom to real life, and the ability to work with a variety of business and community members has allowed me to grow professionally and personally.