(Photo Courtesy Black Health Matters)
From mental health to maternal health, Black Health Matters. This movement is a critical chapter in Black History, and the leaders in this community are writing history every day.
Black Health Matters was started by Roslyn Daniels as a health and wellness resource for the Black Community. Through her Facebook page, she aims to tackle current racial disparities in healthcare advocacy and education, while encouraging her followers to invest in preventative care.
“Black health needs to matter, because the reality is it hasn’t mattered. There’s been a huge medical apartheid that has occurred on Black bodies for centuries,” says Ashley McGirt, who is an advocate for free access to Black mental health. “I really would like to see Black people receive free therapy, especially as reparations.”
McGirt is writing Black history by providing free mental health for the Black community. She started Washington Therapy Fund Foundation to eliminate barriers to Black healing. She’s also filling society’s gaps with services that empower Black clients and therapists to create radical mental and emotional progress, within themselves and their communities.
As a doula, Na’imah Delpeche focuses on healing within the Black Health Matters movement. Women of color are disproportionately impacted by complications during pregnancy and childbirth. So, Delpeche is creating environments for Black mothers to feel protected.
“If we don’t have a doula, if we don’t have a Black midwife, if we don’t have Black providers in our corner—it’s life or death. This is how we survive. This is how we thrive,” says Delpeche. “When I advocate decisions, I’m not just this mama’s doula, I’m this baby’s doula. I truly see birth as an opportunity for healing.”
Discover more about Black Health Matters at https://about.fb.com/community.