This past Thursday, 2/16, was our monthly Truckers' Vaccination clinic. After holding a truckers' health fair last year, we realized that many people who were screened at the fair couldn't make our clinics. Since then, the Hep B project has been holding monthly clinics at OT 411. These clinics are mainly intended for vaccinating people who cannot make our weekly Wednesday clinic. We vaccinated 5 people this week, and we look forward to more successful clinics in the future months. 

Two big updates since the last post! 
1/19 - Truckers' Vaccination Clinic. We are currently holding monthly on-site vaccination clinics for truckers whose work times overlap with our regular clinic hours. 3 people were successfully vaccinated, and we hope to do the same next Thursday, 2/16, when we go back!

1/21 - RICE GIVEAWAY EVENT. We outreached to nearly 200 people waiting in line for free rice. It was exciting to have such a big group so close to our Saturday clinic location, and the event itself was a new experience for the volunteers. 

The Hep B Project set up for Saturday Clinic and was surprised to find about 100 people lined up just a few blocks from the location of our Saturday Clinic. A crowd had assembled because a charity organization was passing out free bags of rice for the holiday season. With the help of our Cantonese volunteers, we were able to outreach to the entire line and educate them a little bit about hepatitis B while they were waiting. This was especially convenient since it was so close to our Saturday Clinic location so that those in line could easily know where we are located. This same organization is planning another rice giveaway in January, and the Hep B Project will be there to provide these same educational and screening services to the large crowd that turns out. 

Today was an educational event located at the Wat Buddhanusorn Thai Temple in Fremont. The temple hosted a festival while the Hep B Project, as well as Alameda County Hep B Free, and other organizations, did tabling on the side. We offered free blood pressure screenings as well as pamphlets and information about Hepatitis B. The event was received warmly by the community. Many of the visitors did not know their vaccination status and the Hep B Project was there to provide information and support about how they could take control of their healthcare.

The Hep B Project hosted an educational workshop today at the Lao Family Community Development Inc, located in Oakland. The Lao Family Community Development delivers asset development, financial education, employment services, and family support to immigrants  refugees, asylees, and low-income U.S. nationals. The presentation today was to outreach to Burmese and Mien immigrants. Over 50 attended our hepatitis B workshop and translation services were provided by the center. It proved a great opportunity to outreach to underrepresented populations and we look forward to hosting more events here in the future.

Today the Hep B Project headed to Oakland and the Regeneration Church (pictured below) to provide on-site hepatitis B education to the community. Attendees included Cantonese, Burmese, and Vietnamese community members. The many different ethnicities provided the opportunity to reach out to some relatively untapped communities. The six volunteers got the chance to reach out to the 125 community members in attendance and to enjoy some great food provided by the church! We look forward to working with them in the future and hopefully providing an on-site screening at this location. 

Below is the most recent photo of our entire group, taken at our recent social. We have over 40 volunteers whose dedication makes all of our work possible.The recent social was a great way for us to come together to get to know each other better, and recognize all of our achievements for the past year. 

We screened 13 and vaccinated 6 this week! 

A preliminary version of the Hep B Project's ARC GIS Mapping Project has been completed and promises to make outreaching to Alameda County even easier.  The project was awarded the $10,000 CITRUS grant earlier this year to assist with the creation of an interactive map showing us visually where our different patient come from. By building this mapping system, we can easily find churches and community centers next to hot spots where there are a large amount of positive or naive patients and subsequently outreach to them. A big thanks to Flora and our entire Tech Team for making this happen!

Today the Hep B Project met with representatives for the Lao Family Community Development in Oakland to discuss the possibilities of hosting a health workshop in the future. The Lao Family Community Development, or LFCD, focuses on providing resources to new immigrants and refugees just starting out in the U.S. The Hep B Project is proud to announce it will soon host workshops at the center, especially targeting Burmese and Butanaese patients. 

For more information, check out http://www.lcd.org/ and look for our upcoming events!