State of Hamburg - Germany honours Founder of EAC-Network as Certified Intercultural Health Mediator

Hamburg's Senator for Health, Dietrich Wersich, and the chairman of the state association of corporate health insurance companies, Puppel, honoured Chris Ezeh, founder of EuroAfricaCentral Network, and 31 other citizens of Hamburg as new certified Intercultural health mediators.

The certificate award ceremony took place at 12:00 on Wednesday 14 April 2010 in the Hamburg Welcome Center, Alter Wall 11, 20457 Hamburg. The event was presented by Marion Förster from Norddeutscher Rundfunk (North German Broadcasting Corporation). In his opening speech, the Senator for Health, Dietrich Wersich, said: "The MiMi mediators campaign with commendable civic involvement to promote knowledge and expertise of migrants in the field of health. As intermediaries they also contribute towards improving the integration of immigrants and overcoming any inhibitions they may have."

The new Intercultural Health Mediators will provide people with immigration background important information about health care, illness prevention and health promotion in a face-to-face setting, such as in cultural centres and clubs. As part of the project "Mit Migranten für Migranten (MiMi - With Migrants, For Migrants), the participants have received further training with a 56-hour course given by health experts. They will provide extrat support to the 15 mediators who are presently active in Hamburg.

Together with the Senator for Health, Wersich, Manfred Puppel, chairman of BKK-Landesverband NORD (the state association of company health insurance companies for northern Germany) presented the trained health mediators with their certificates in a special presentation ceremony. Puppel commented: "Health education is important even amongst those with insurance and patients with little knowledge of German. For many years, the company health insurance fund has encouraged the "Mit Migranten für Migranten" project, with the aim that migrant fellow citizens can better improve and sustain their health."

As part of the training, the participants receive information from various sources, including medical practitioners, A cross section of the newly qualified intercultural mediators psychologists and nutritionists, about the structure of the German health care system and what it has to offer, about important aspects of illness prevention such as diet and exercise, about children's health, mental health, old age, caregiving and about the network of counselling services in Hamburg.

Following training, the health mediators give information to their fellow citizens, for example in cultural centres and clubs, religious establishments, language schools and advice centres. As culturally sensitive mediators, they help migrant citizens to make sense of the many things the local health care services have to offer. Within the space of just a few months, the new health mediators have already helped 800 migrants in Hamburg.

The "Mit Migranten für Migranten" project has been active in Hamburg since 2005. Because of the demand for culturally specific health promotion in the city, a third group of intercultural health mediators was trained in 2009. The project is supported by the Office for Social Affairs, Family, Health and Consumer Protection and by the BKK-Landesverband Nord (the state association of company health insurance companies for northern Germany). Promoters of the project within the city are the Verband für Kinder- und Jugendarbeit Hamburg e.V. (the Hamburg Association of Children and Youth Work) and the Ethno-Medizinisches Zentrum e.V. (the Ethno-Medical Centre) in Hanover

. VIEW EVENT PHOTOS HERE

Further press information:
If you would like to accompany a mediator
in their work on-site, please contact:
MiMi-Hamburg,
Karin Robben,
Graf-Johann Weg 38,
22459 Hamburg,
Tel.: 040 - 419 14 223
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Contact - For media enquiries:
Press office of the Office for Social Affairs,
Family, Health and Consumer Protection
Rico Schmidt
Tel.: 42863-3478, Fax: 42863-38 49
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http://www.hamburg.de/bsg