During the COVID-19 pandemic, Debra Fraser-Howze got tired of seeing Black and brown bodies carted off in black bags.
COVID-19 deaths were disproportionately affecting Black and brown communities in Newark and other major cities nationwide, she said, in part because the victims suffered from undiagnosed and untreated pre-existing conditions that put them at greater risk of dying from COVID-19.
Fraser-Howze knew she needed to do something. So, she did.
She founded the nonprofit Choose Healthy Life, based in Pennsylvania, which partnered with the nonprofit Quest for Health Equity and Black churches in cities hardest hit by COVID-19 – Detroit, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York and Newark – to give residents access to testing, vaccinations and other services to close health care gaps.
“A lot of the reasons why people died at alarming rates within Black and brown communities was due to pre-existing conditions,” said the Rev. Kimberly L. Williams, Choose Healthy Life’s executive director.
Mike Prevoznik agreed.
“We saw the disproportionate impact that COVID had on underserved populations, and we wanted to do something about that,” said Prevoznik, co-executive sponsor of Quest for Health Equity, a philanthropic arm of Quest Diagnostics, which contributed COVID-19 tests to support the effort.
Nowadays, Choose Healthy Life has shifted its focus to improving the pre-existing conditions that led to some of the 727 COVID-19 deaths in Newark by the end of 2020.
A Quest Diagnostic representative discussed the Choose Healthy Life program on Sept. 13 during a Thought Leaders conference hosted by the Meadowlands Chamber in East Rutherford to discuss the business of health care.
During the pandemic, Choose Healthy Life’s program director, Yolanda Mack said over 1,700 people were vaccinated through events the nonprofit hosted.
In the last 18 months, the Rev. David Jefferson Sr., a Newark clergy leader for Choose Healthy Life at Metropolitan Baptist Church, said the organization has assisted over 24,000 Newark residents, with about 2,300 taking the Blueprint for Wellness, a series of tests given to individuals to detect ailments like diabetes, cancer and vitamin deficiencies, allowing community health workers to identify concerns and steer those in need toward health services and resources at 10 Newark churches.
That could mean booking and paying for an Uber to a doctor’s appointment, scheduling a doctor’s appointment, hosting food drives to get nutritious food to people, or connecting them to organizations in Newark that can help with rent and utility bills.
“They provide that bridge between the church and the community,” Williams said. “We’re here to provide you with health resources, and we care about you as a person.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, co-chair of Choose Healthy Life’s National Black Clergy Health Leadership Council, said, “The Black church, as a historic and trusted pillar of our community, plays a pivotal role in stepping into the breach to tackle our most significant health challenges.”
Newark resident Kenneth Gifford, 50, knows the value of access to testing and resources.
Last year, he learned he had prostate cancer after testing during a Choose Healthy Life event and sought treatment.
When Gifford took the test to his primary care physician, he said the doctor said he would monitor the situation.
Gifford decided to see a urologist who biopsied his prostate and told him he had a form of aggressive cancer, he said.
He had emergency prostate removal surgery in July but still needs further treatment later this fall, he said.
“I’m grateful that they have these programs and that it was put in front of me by someone that I do believe cares and trusts and believes in the community because, for me, it was the last step to being too late,” he said.
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Amira Sweilem may be reached at asweilem@njadvancemedia.com.
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