Impactful Alpha Kappa Alpha Mississippi Health Project Will Revisit the Mississippi Delta During National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October
MISSISSIPPI DELTA – After a successful COVID-19 vaccination outreach program earlier this summer where 330 residents received vaccines, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® (AKA) is returning to the Mississippi Delta October 4-6, this time bringing its 3D mobile mammogram unit to provide free mammograms for uninsured women during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Other screenings and health services provided by partners Delta Health Center, Mallory Community Health Center, and Walgreens include COVID-19 testing and vaccines, flu shots, vaccines for school-aged children, HIV testing, vital sign screening, and eye examinations.
“Our connection to Black residents of the Mississippi Delta goes back to the 1930s and 1940s. Back then, the sorority launched its first Summer School for Rural Teachers, a program created in Lexington to improve the educational skills among Black teachers,” explains Dr. Glenda Glover, international president and chief executive officer of AKA. “Quickly, the leadership of the sorority recognized the lack of access to quality healthcare for Black families in that region of the country needed to take priority. This set us on a trajectory to open community health clinics that offered vaccinations and medical care for children and families. The Mississippi Health Project (MHP) was born out of necessity and a call to serve.”
The three-day Mississippi Delta Health Project II event will span five important counties: October 4, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Dr. Arenia C. Mallory Community Health Center, 300 Yazoo Street, Lexington, MS 39095, South Lexington, MS (no mammograms); October 4, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Walgreens, 700 W. Park Avenue, Greenwood, MS; October 5, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., BB King Museum, 400 Second Street, Indianola, MS; October 5, 8:00 a.m. – noon, Greenville Mall, 1651 MS 1 Greenville, MS; and October 6, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m., Delta Health Center, 702 Martin Luther King Road, Mound Bayou, MS.
A health forum will be held on Monday, October 4, during the event at Walgreens, 700 West Park Avenue, in Greenwood, starting at 1:30p.m. The AKA health forum will focus on breast cancer awareness and the continued fight against COVID-19 in the Black community and underserved populations. Healthcare professionals and Walgreens executive management and pharmacist will discuss the importance and misinformation regarding the vaccine and why African American women still die at an alarming rate with breast cancer even as technology has improved.
The confirmed speakers are Dr. Glenda Glover, International President and CEO, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., who will discuss the MHP and the significance of returning to the Delta during the pandemic and during Breast Cancer Awareness month; Kelli Sharpe, Public Relations and Communications Committee Co-Chairman, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® will serve as moderator; Dr. Ala Stanford, Medical Director for the Mississippi Health Project II, Pediatric and General Surgeon, Founder & CEO, The Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium; Ora Douglass, RN, who will answer questions regarding the AKA Health Pop Up events across the U.S.; Mary Williams, DNP, will answer questions as a provider in the Mississippi Delta and their response to vaccinations (Urgent & Primary Care of Clarksdale); Angela Reed, a Launch Program Manager with Kellogg Company and breast cancer survivor who will talk about what the AKA mammogram program has meant to her; and a Walgreens pharmacist.
Those who receive a vaccination or mammogram can enter a drawing to win a flat screen TV. CDC safety guidelines will be followed. Free mammograms require a scheduled appointment. Please visit www.assuredimaging.com/AKA or call (888) 233-6121.
AKA strives to reach 100,000 women over the course of four years since its AKA 3D Mammography Mobile Unit launched in 2018. Chapters will also partner with local clinics, rural health centers, and hospitals to emphasize the need for African-American women to receive regular mammograms.
