“A BETTER ME”
THE SANKOFA PROJECT
Minority Health Disparities, Chronic Disease Education and Drug Abuse Intervention Program 

African-Americans bear a disproportionate burden of health disparities in the state. West Virginia’s racial and ethnic minority populations have shorter life expectancies and higher rates of cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS infections and cardiovascular disease. 

We believe that the African-American community has much to learn from its past-in order to adapt to a healthy lifestyle in the future. Our minority health education and training program is a fresh and different approach to a healthy living educational process (mental and physical) for African-American citizens in Raleigh County. The Sankofa Bird attitude is a realization of self and spirit. It is a holistic approach to minority health care. It represents the concepts of self-identity, redefinition and vision. Legend says that it flies forward while looking back. Sankofa means, "To go back to the past in order to build for the future."

Our Minority Health Education Program logo, the Sankofa Bird, symbolizes the past and the future. This mythical bird flies forwards with its head turned backwards. While the bird is advancing, it periodically examines or returns to the past.  The past serves as a guide for planning the future. We as African Americans need to use the information and scientific research of the past and present in order to make ourselves mentally, emotionally, and physically  healthy in the future.
 
Sankofa(sang-ko-fah)
Our training programs are consistent with the goals of the Healthy People 2010 initiatives to address and ultimately eliminate the health disparities among the minority population in the region. The health education and fellowship programs address and focus on the major areas of health disparities, as well as other health issues such as drug abuse that are critically important to people of color.  Our mission is also to prevent our youth from taking risks with alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs.

The Sankofa Project is based out of the New Hope Baptist Church, 305 Workley Rd., Beckley, WV 25801. For more information, contact Carrilyn Carey, director Christian Health Education Program, at (304) 253-9361.