Addressing Health Disparities in Baton Rouge
BATON ROUGE, LA. – On July 11-14, 2024, the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference, in partnership with the Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN), hosted its first-ever health disparities weekend at the Baton Rouge Seventh-day Adventist Church. This special event was held to discuss the importance of what health disparities are and how we can address these real and serious issues together.
The event culminated on Sunday with a community clinic that provided free health services, including medical, dental, vision, counseling and spiritual care. The clinic was an opportunity to demonstrate Jesus’ love and presence by providing these services for many who can’t afford health care.
Volunteers, staff and leaders spent months preparing for this event, which had over 100 volunteers and staff.
“It was a wonderful experience, life-changing really,” said participant Dr. Janae Miller. “Sometimes we get so caught up in our day-to-day clinic and practices, and we lose sight of the why. This is a very good reminder of why it’s gratifying to treat underserved/underinsured patients.” Dr. Miller went on to say how much she appreciated seeing the smiles on patients’ faces and was glad to have caught some diseases early during the event. “I would highly recommend anyone to at least try this for a day,” she said.
Participant Taja Head said, “I haven’t seen anything like this before, where a church and community has reached out to help take care of their community. Some churches say they do this, but this is my very first time to have ever seen anything like this ever. It’s been amazing.”
Our marketing team made a huge impact by spreading the word about the clinic through commercials, flyers, social media and local newspapers. On Sunday morning, we had a long line with more than 200 people who showed up. Many patients were moved to tears as they were blessed and cared for by the wonderful hospitality the clinic provided.
One of the patients exclaimed, “I can smile again now! My teeth were so bad, I could never smile or afford to get them fixed, but thanks to you all I can smile again.”
Another patient presented with extremely high blood pressure and was sent to the hospital immediately. Her family said that if she hadn’t come to the clinic, she would have died, adding that Jesus saved her that day.
This health disparities weekend couldn’t have been pulled off without the leadership of Health Ministries Director Dr. Marjorie Bélizaire, who led the event. Satan attacked multiple times with sickness and cancellations, however, Dr. Bélizaire prayed, and God answered. Some of the prayers God answered were for the provision of security and eye care for the event.
Dr. Bélizaire shared, “I was blessed, my heart was warmed and I still have goosebumps from all the good that we did that day. To show the community the love of God in this capacity is truly what being a Christian is all about. To God be the glory for giving me a vision to organize this for our community. We serve an amazing God, and we want to let everyone know that!”
