Minority Health

Mission

The mission of the Duke University Red Cross Minority Health Committee is to promote minority health and to lead, coordinate, and support the effort of Duke undergraduates to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities. The Minority Health Committee envisions a world in which all populations will have an equal opportunity to live long, healthy and productive lives. We are committed to making a contribution to our campus and to our community by raising awareness of minority health issues and doing relevant service work at Duke and in Durham.

Projects

Bone Marrow Registry Drives

The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization begun in 1863. We conduct 2-3 bone marrow registry drives each semester in an effort to recruit more potential donors into the national bone marrow registry. Each year, more than 35,000 people are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases for which a marrow or blood stem cell transplant may offer the only chance for a cure. The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) maintains the world's largest, most diverse registry of more than 5 million volunteer blood stem cell donors and more than 28,000 cord blood units. Nevertheless, even with millions of potential donors on the Registry, some patients are unable to find a match because of the rarity of their tissue traits. A pressing need remains for more Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander donors. When you become a donor through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), you are participating in an effort to give patients with leukemia and other life-threatening blood diseases a second chance at life. You can join the NMDP Registry as a potential marrow or blood stem cell donor if you are between the ages of 18 and 60, in good general health and willing to be available if you are ever identified as a match for a patient in need. Joining the registry involves just 5 minutes and 2-3 cheek swabs. That's all it takes to potentially save a life.

Red Cross volunteers help publicize bone marrow registry drives and increase awareness on campus of the issues involved.

If you are interested in either joining the registry or becoming a volunteer, email Minority Health chair Sally Liu at sally.liu [at] duke [dot] edu.

Triangle Healthcare Resources Pamphlet Project

The Minority Health Committee has assembled a directory of healthcare resources in the Triangle area. We are currently translating these materials into Spanish, and then we will be distributing the finished pamphlets to local community centers that cater to underserved populations in an effort to improve healthcare access and awareness for these groups that often suffer healthcare disparities.

HIV/AIDS Projects

We are currently in the process of establishing a community outreach program where students conduct HIV/AIDS awareness workshops in local elementary schools. We are also planning events for World AIDS Day on December 1st, and programming for an AIDS and Minority Health Awareness Week slated for April 2008, since April is National Minority Health Month. This awareness week will entail speakers who are experts in HIV/AIDS or Minority Health, workshops/presentations done in collaboration with other organizations on campus, and other relevant programming. If you're interested in being involved in planning, e-mail Sally Liu (sally.liu [at] duke [dot] edu).

Other Activities

Our committee may participate in an alternative spring break, wherein we do a minority health-related service project over spring break. We also plan on attending the Annual Minority Health Conference hosted by the UNC School of Public Health in late February 2008.

If you are interested in joining this committee, email committee chair Sally Liu at sally.liu [at] duke [dot] edu

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