At the 2016 CCIH Annual Conference, Dr. Ron Pust of Heartbeat for Africa discusses how the organization develops partnerships to address diseases and extreme poverty.

1. C C I H 2016
Breakout Session 1C
Partnerships to Equip Communities
to Fight Disease & Extreme Poverty
18 June 10:45 – 12 noon

2. Heartbeat for Africa (HBA)
Ron Pust MD
HBA Medical Adviser/Board Member
Faculty of Family & Community Medicine
Director, Office of Global & Border Health
University of Arizona College of Medicine—Tucson
rpust@email.arizona.edu

3. Empowering Africans in rural West Africa
to transform communities

4. Heartbeat for Africa (HBA) …
…is a faith-based NGO or 501(c)3 non-profit
formed in 2006
in Tucson, Arizona and made-up of both American
and Ghanaian board members, working in
Ghana …

6. ………and throughout West Africa

7. What does HBA envision?
Partnerships in West Africa
and the United States that focus on
a strategy known as
Community Health Evangelism
(CHE)

8. HBA’s Current Partners:
• Medical Ambassadors Int’l [ MAI ] – West Africa
Adedayo Obaweya, Director MAI– West Africa
• The City of Refuge Ministry – Doryumu, Ghana
J&S Omorefe, CoRM Directors
• Pantano Christian Church – Tucson, AZ
• The Crossing Church – Las Vegas, NV

9. Medical Ambassadors International (West Africa)
Currently Constructing a Training Center in Ghana to Teach CHE

10. CHE African Internship Training Center (AITC)
Aveyime, Ghana

11. • The AITC was started in 2012 based upon a similar CHE
training center in the Philippines
• The AITC will provide training for African nationals to
help develop resources in their countries
• In addition, the AITC has a dormitory, The
“Transformation House”, to accommodate orphans
• In addition, to learning vocational skills these teen-
agers are also learning about CHE

12. City of Refuge Ministries [CoRM]
• CORM, sheltering refugees from child slavery on Lake Volta,
has a private school, Faith Roots International Academy
(FRIA) on the campus, as well as housing for staff and a
water filtration plant
• In the future, CORM plans to build a clinic
• In 2015, CORM established a partnership with the
International Justice Mission (I J M), promoting restoration
to community
• HBA has partnered with CORM for over 2 years and
currently sponsors 11 children

13. • Empowering people to do things for themselves
• Reaching the whole person
• Equipping leaders
• Developing community ownership
• Preventive vs. Curative /Development vs. Relief
www.medicalambassadors.org
www.westafricache.com
What is CHE?

14. …developing community ownership via CHE
Guinea Bissau, 2012

15. Community’s
three top
choices via CHE

18. …to Guinea- Bissau in 2011

22. …to transform communities via the Church...Sierra Leone,2013

24. Wesleyan pastor Solomon Vankanai, CHASL/ MAI Freetown
….and 3 U of Arizona Year 2 medical students,
Wulai village, Sierra Leone, 2013

26. …..Preventive vs. Curative??

27. Gbando Family:
Pastor and Child Ward Nurse
EUB Church and Hospital
Mattru Jong, Bonthe Province
Sierra Leone…
and of course, CHE / MAI are
still there, while HBA / USA …a
Are not…

29. Nutrition status of children 0-60 months old in northern part
of Cacheu Province, Guinea-Bissau, as measured by
standard child anthropometry
Chinenye Anako, for the University of Arizona medical student
group and Heartbeat for Africa [Tucson, Arizona, USA.]
Introduction:
This is the first of potentially several reports of analyses of maternal-child health
[MCH] data obtained during a survey of mothers and their young children in five villages
of northern Cacheu Province of Guinea-Bissau by five medical students and the staff
and translators from Catel clinic of the Mennonite Church of Guinea-Bissau in
April,2011. Results of an environmental/economic survey of 16 households in the same
area have previously been reported.
The purpose of the survey was to provide baseline assessments of MCH in the
beginning phase of this clinic’s outreach to families in these villages

30. Nutritional Survey Graphs of Z-scores for each anthropometric index
WHO reference standards are graphed in Green on all graphs below. Cacheu survey Z-score
distributions are graphed in Red, showing the negative deviation from the WHO 2006 standards
Weight-for-age = “undernutrition”

31. Height-for-age = Stunting

32. Nutrition status of children 0-60 months old in northern part
of Cacheu Province, Guinea-Bissau, as measured by
standard child anthropometry
Chinenye Anako, for the University of Arizona medical student
group and Heartbeat for Africa [Tucson, Arizona, USA.]
Introduction:
This is the first of potentially several reports of analyses of maternal-child health
[MCH] data obtained during a survey of mothers and their young children in five villages
of northern Cacheu Province of Guinea-Bissau by five medical students and the staff
and translators from Catel clinic of the Mennonite Church of Guinea-Bissau in
April,2011. Results of an environmental/economic survey of 16 households in the same
area have previously been reported.
The purpose of the survey was to provide baseline assessments of MCH in the
beginning phase of this clinic’s outreach to families in these villages

33. Considerations specific to child feeding in northwestern Guinea-Bissau
The Guinea-Bissau diet consists mostly of rice with fish [or ground nut] oil sauce. Palm oil,
vegetables, and, on occasion, meat [including goat, beef, chicken or pork] are also parts of
the diet. To improve the diet of the community’s children, it is advised that this child
nutrition baseline survey become a starting point of one of the Guinea-Bissau CHE lessons.
Community education would also serve to improve the nutrition of adults.
Food availability can also be improved through community farming. Different food crops,
each grown by families, and then shared, traded or marketed among families would diversify
the diets of all in the area.
Specific short messages that can be emphasized in CHE or any community education:
• Breast feed for at least 12 months
• Beginning at 6 months, feed your child 3 meals a day. Add “snacks” between meals.
• Add oils [and ground nuts when available]
• Add beans