Provided Health Services to Children
In 2003, AWCD was involved in facilitating enrollment for the Child Health Plus, Family Health Plus, and Medicaid Programs under NYS Department of Health which started in September 2002. Under this program, AWCD provided application assistance to disadvantaged families and individuals applying for Child Health Plus, A and B, MA, FHPlus, the Parental care Assistance Program (PCAP) or the special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Assistance, by collecting the required documentation, and, transmitting the completed applications to the lead agency, eventually to be covered by DOH of State of NEW York. AWCD covered Jackson Heights and Flushing areas where about eight hundred cab drivers of Asian origin reside. The drivers were not fluent in functional English and required personnel who could assist in language acquisition. AWCD had bilingual specialists, who were proficient in Hindi, and Bengali, that gave extra advantage to work with these drivers’ families. AWCD performed the following specific activities:
- Assisted immigrant women and non-speaking English immigrants in Jackson Heights to understand that health care was one of the most felt needs of these families, as most of them were individually employed and did not have health insurance. The taxi drivers, for example, were most susceptible to health hazards as they were on the streets most of the time and also needed education on simple preventive measures for common diseases. AWCD trained them on understanding of policies and procedures to access to health services and how to advocate for the health services for them and their families. We worked with the taxi drivers to make them aware of the existing health facilities of New York vis-a-vis their immigration and insurance status, and help them to avail the Medicaid Managed Medicare and take benefit of city hospitals and other entitled health amenities. To make them understand the problems better, AWCD produced handouts and documents in their various languages, mostly in Hindi/Urdu or in Bengali, and disseminated them through the intensive interactions for internalization and took active part in the advocacy measures with similar activists and organizations helping health advocacy.
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AWCD’s main office is currently located
in New York City at the following address:
Agency for Women and Child Development
274 Malcolm X Blvd @ 124th St
Second Floor, #3
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212-722-7005
Fax: 212-722 7006
E-mail: admin@womenandchildren.net
Website: www.womenandchildren.net
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