Healthcare is a universal human right that should be granted to people, regardless of their race, religion, or social condition. However, the Black community has always been the recipient of inequality in terms of quality. ourHealth is a social community geared toward bettering access to information regarding health founded by Eric Chiyembekeza.
Chiyembekeza is a 30-year-old member of the community who works in healthcare. He is in charge of operations of federally qualified health centers that serve underserved communities. Chiyembekeza has watched the Black community receive significantly poorer health outcomes. His mother has had lupus for nearly 20 years, an aunt passed away from cancer, and he lost his sister to breast cancer.
Working in healthcare has made him even more aware of the disconnect between people who access information and people who need to hear it. Chiyembekeza has seen the barrier where cultural differences are often unaccounted for with disseminated information. As a member of the Black community, he had to do something to meet the community’s needs.
He created ourHealth, a social community available on mobile and web and a streaming platform to increase visibility and accessibility of information to Black health. The mobile app is meant to bring the Black health community together so they can share valuable information about health care, mental health, nutrition, self-care, fitness, yoga, meditation, and many other areas.
Chiyembekeza was aware that there had never been a standalone Black health community. So he made it a point to create and own a streaming platform rather than the antiquated cable television approach. ourHealth was made to bridge the chasm that exists between the voices of Black health, from the past generation to the newer millennials in the industry.
ourHealth aggregates the information of their Black health influencers and the community that needs the information. Although their health needs are not widely addressed, their health outcomes have been, and they are the poorest of any group in the country.
Chiyembekeza and his team are actively partnering with video content creators so they can complete the streaming component of ourHealth Community. The content creators who decide to partner with them will also be compensated. They are getting information from lawmakers to the laymen.
ourHealth wants to help individuals who show interest in contributing to a mobile community that is specifically designed to combat health inequities by addressing social determinants of health. To decrease the barriers to access, they created a free app available on both iOS and Android.
The app is currently being used by different races and people from the healthcare field and even those who aren’t. ourHealth is open and inviting but carries a primary mission of increasing visibility and accessibility of information and resources related to Black health.
With original ourHealth video content, they will operate on a subscription model that allows them to pay royalties to the creators for their videos’ unique views. They plan to have a free version of the streaming site supported by advertisers who align with their mission and community in the future.
ourHealth is constantly growing, and they want to be the go-to resource for people of color interested in information related to their health.
To find out more about ourHealth, you may visit their website.
