| RALEIGH, N.C. – The North Carolina Folic Acid Campaign was honored with an award at the National Birth Defects Prevention Network Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on February 13. The Latino Education Campaign, spearheaded by Leslie deRosset, MPH, won the 2007 Birth Defects Education and Prevention Award.
“This award would have not been possible without the dedication of staff, volunteers and partnering agencies. I especially want to thank our Community Ambassadors who have worked so hard to make this program successful,” said deRosset, Latino Campaign coordinator.
This award is given annually to a program to honor their efforts at raising public awareness of birth defects through innovative and collaborative projects.
The North Carolina Folic Acid Campaign started the Latino Education component because Latinas are twice as likely to have a baby born with a neural tube defect than other racial/ethnic populations. Latinas are also less likely to receive early prenatal care and they have additional barriers to care, such as lack of health insurance and language barriers.
To address this issue, the Campaign created a comprehensive and multifaceted program to reach Spanish-speaking women in North Carolina. The Latino Education Campaign uses a lay health education model, called the Community Ambassador Program; a specialized health care provider education component, which targets those that work primarily with Latinos; and media advertising, which uses culturally-relevant messages to convey the importance of taking multivitamins with folic acid.
In 2007 deRosset trained 229 new Community Ambassadors, who in turn reached 3,000 Spanish-speaking women through one-on-one or small group education. The Campaign also collaborated with 15 community-based organizations and conducted 30 health care provider trainings.
The Latino Education Campaign also won an award for “Best Community-Based Research” at Women’s Health Research Day at UNC-Chapel Hill in April 2007. In addition, deRosset presented to more than 700 health care providers at three locations in Mexico about neural tube defects, folic acid and the Latino Education Campaign in July and August 2007.
The North Carolina Folic Acid Campaign, a collaboration between the North Carolina Folic Acid Council and the March of Dimes, uses innovative initiatives to educate women about the benefits of folic acid and the birth defects it helps to prevent. To find out more about the Campaign visit www.getfolic.com, or contact Megan Fazekas at 919-781-2481 or by e-mail at mfazekas@marchofdimes.com. |
