KCFA Boston to hold Health and Financial Conference,
tomorrow, Sunday, November 8
By Our Writer, Ajabu Africa News
BOSTON, Mass, NOVEMBER 7_Concerned about the lack of full credible information on important issues affecting the Kenyan community in the USA, the Kenya Christians Fellowship in America, KCFA), Boston Chapter, has decided hold a free Health screening and Financial information seminar on Sunday , November 8 at the Saint Paul’s Community church in Lawrence, Mass..
Mercy Kamau, a Phd student at Umass Boston, and president of Afya Njema , a non profit organization promoting good health in rural communities in Kenya will lead a battery of Kenyan RN’s and LPN’s in screening Kenyans for conditions like Diabetes and hypertension.
Dr. Eileen Stuart-Shor, also of Umass Boston, will join the Kenyan health professionals to serve their community.
Kenyans from all over New England have been invited to attend the free screening focusing on the two chronic, yet preventable diseases that have been affecting Kenyans of all ages in the USA at an increasing rate.
The seminar, that has been in the works for several months will harness the power of various Kenyan experts in the health and financial industry who in the past have displayed interest in serving the community.
“Some Kenyans in the US have been hailed as highly educated but have not been well utilized to serve the Kenyan community in the US in the right way. They work for big companies, drawing huge salaries or doing important work .We need to use their experience to provide crucial information to our own people”, said James Njuguna, chairman of KCFA Boston Chapter.
The Obama administration is also encouraging folks to practice preventative health care where individuals and communities are advised to take proactive steps in preventing the onset of diseases which would otherwise cost more to treat.
According to Ajabu Africa health contributors, Eve Njoroge from Lowell and Wanja Muite from Nashua, New Hampshire, Kenyans and Africans in the USA have not been paying enough attention to their health and rarely attend medical checkups until it is way too late.
“When you know what you are working with, it’s better than he who has no idea if they have a certain condition”, said Muite as she encouraged people to turn up for the event.
She added that screening is crucial because “If you know you have blood pressure, or hypertension, then you have to eat healthy, organic foods, as close to original as possible. You will also have an advantage that you will get treated on time”.
Earlier this year, a Kenyan lady from Dracut, Mass., Lucy Gaiti, credited luck and divine intervention when she went for a regular checkup for the first time ever , only to be told that she was about to develop full blown breast cancer.
As Kenyans gathered to help her fundraise for expenses that were piling on her as she underwent painful chemotherapy, Gaiti told them that her cancer was treatable just because she got diagnozed at the nick of time. She urged everyone to make a point of getting screened for diseases.
Eve Njoroge, another AjabuAfrica health contributor said that preventing the onset of disease if the wisest decision one can do especially in America where treatment is of high standard.
Njoroge is a Licensed practical nurse at the world renown Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston.
During tomorrow’s event, a leading researcher at North Eastern University, Dr. Richard Wamae, will also conduct a HIV- AIDS awareness forum.
Recently, Dr. Wamae, in a seminar at North Eastern University, brought to light the alarming report that indicated the rate of HIV-AIDS infection among Kenyans in Massachusetts has shot up to 250% , while that of the neigboring ugandans is up 600% within the past two years.
The event will also feature a financial awareness forum conducted by Ajabu Africa publisher, Harrison Maina who is also a Regional Marketing Director with a leading financial institution in the USA, Capital Choice Financial.
The financial aspect of the forum will focus on the need for every Kenyan in the US to have the right personal life insurance and short term disability coverage as too many cases of Kenyans passing away in the US while not insured have escalated, bleeding the churches and the community of the much needed funds to do other things for development.
Although many Kenyans have some form of coverage at their work places, they have no idea that the life insurance offered by most employers is not dependable, and is hardly sufficient to meet their needs in case of premature death. These kind of policies pay only if a person dies while still in employment.
As more and more Kenyans find themselves laid off due to the current economic reccsession, they have lost all their employer based life insurance coverage, and in case of companies going under, their retirement savings if any, have gone down the tubes too.
Maina told the organizers of the seminar that many Kenyans are also overpaying on the premiums for their life policies , in an era when term life premiums have drastically gone down, and worse still, some have cash value policies which are not very appropriate for people with limited finances and are barely struggling to get by.
Before passing away, a Kenyan man recently told Maina that he wished someone had told him of the right kind of life insurance to purchase before he got diagnosed with a late term gastric cancer that was about to end his life in 3 months.
The late Stephen Gathi had a mere $25,000 policy at his work place, but since he was ordered to stop working by his doctors as he went through chemotherapy, he depleted his sick time, thus at the time his impeding death, Gathi was not eligible to get a payment to his family upon his death.
Shocked by this, Gathi and Maina set upon reviewing his other life policy that he owned.
Unfortunately, Maina discovered that the policy was an accidental death and dismemberment, the kind that only pays if an insured person dies by accident, and pays zero if death is occasioned by disease or any other cause.
The realization scared the late Gathi as he indicated that he had a young daughter who had just finished high school and that Gathi was very worried how she would pay for her college upon his impeding death.
Luckily, the loving Christians of the Kenyan community donated about $7000 to grant Gathi his final wish to travel to Kenya and pray with his family.
The late Gathi passed away in July this year in line with the doctor’s prediction but had told Maina to tell everyone who wishes to listen about his mistake so that no one else can repeat it out of sheer ignorance.
“Such cases make it imperative for every Kenyan to know the truth about life insurance and at least get some coverage when they are still healthy.Even people who are suffering form certain diseases can get life insurance only that they may pay a little bit more than a perfectly healthy individual", said Maina.
“We still have the financial management mentality of our forefathers even when we were bleesed to come to came to America, the country with the greatest financial system in the world".
Ultimately, everyone is responsible of what you pass down to the generations coming after you”, added Maina, urging Kenyans to come and get armed with information, then make their own choices.
“Some people leave wealth to their children, others leave a mess", added Maina who have now opened an office location in Lowell, Mass., to help different communities get the truthful and honest financial information.
During the past one year only, AjabuAfrica.com have announced over 15 deaths of Kenyans in the US, and practically all of them had no life insurance, to our best of knowledge, yet they all had some form of income which could have funded at least a $30 a month in a cheap term life policy of at least $100,000 before they passed away..
“Most of the deaths involved young people of between 22 years to 45 years old",said Maina.
Since these Kenyans died anyways, even without life insurance, it required the community to raise an average of $20,000 to send their bodies back home, or bury them here in the US.
“That’s a loss of $300,000 from the economy of Kenyans in the diaspora”, lamented Maina. This is money that could have been used to buy modern equipments at churches, or help some charities in Kenya or even set up a fund for Kenyans in the US to award scholarships to deserving students, added the publisher of Ajabu Africa.
Maina also said that it was sad that Kenyans and Africans in general are just sitting without acting when Americans are making a killing at this time of economic recovery as the Dow Jones rises and falls everyday.
He therefore voluntereed to provide information on how to take advantage of the markets when they are low and know how to minimize risks of loss.
“This is the time for any ambitious person to invest in the American financial system, when everything is low. “ You can’t wait when the prices of the stocks have gone up then rush to buy, or worse still just be a spectator on your TV screen as the numbers keep rising and others get their money working for them. ”, said Maina.
He asked Kenyans to come and get free information on how the American financial system works and even take advantage of the extended government program for tax breaks on those who will commit to buy houses by the end of April, 2010.
"You can make a lot of money by investing in America, then send the profits home to buy plots rather than just depending on investing in Kenya alone where the system most of the time never works the right way. However, this can not happen if you don't have the correct information", said Maina.
The event has been organized by the KCFA Boston chapter under the chairmanship of James Njuguna of Oasis of Love Ministries.
The seminar starts at 2 pm at 112 Andover st, Lawrence, MA.
As they say, “Information is power”, and someone added ; “as long as that information is the right information”.
Many Kenyans in the USA have been given the wrong information from sources seeking to make a quick buck, leading to devastating losses of their health and investments, like so many houses that were foreclosed, leaving some affected Kenyans with elevated blood pressure.
This is a cycle that can be broken by tomorrow’s seminar.
Be there if you live in New England and if you have a question to ask, it will be answered by trusted sources. If not, stay tuned to what happens at the seminar from Ajabu Africa.com.
