M. Trujillo is an active parent of the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School family. She has dedicated many volunteer hours and was a participant in a certification program on Diabetes in the Puerto Rican community. The article below reflects her experiences as a successful participant in the program.

72 Block Humboldt Park Diabetes Initiative
Diabetes in Humboldt Park has been growing in alarming rates. Twenty percent of the community has been diagnosed with diabetes.  Therefore a new program named 72 Blocks, a “block by block” initiative, has taken affect to educate the people about diabetes and how to live healthy. A group of agencies have gotten together to promote the project.

In 2008 it was recorded that 24 million Americans were living with diabetes. Of those 24 million, 11.8% are African Americans 10.4% are Latinos, while 6.5 million people age 20 and older remain undiagnosed.

Block by block project steering committee is comprised of the project ‘s co-principals investigators (Steve K. Rotshchild and Jose Lopez), the executive directors’ of pueblo sin fronteras, (Emma Lozano) and the Greater Humbolt Park Community of Wellness (Juana Ballesteros), the director of the Sinai Urban Health institute (Steve Whiteman) and the Block-by-block project director Jaime Delgado.

This campaign targeted to educate and promote awareness of diabetes in our community.  The program is geared to improve the quality and quantity of life by motivating our community to develop healthy eating habits, as well to become more physically fit.

The campaign will establish a community diabetes empowerment center which is going to be located at La Estansia building on the corner of Division and California. At this location, there will be events, Information, services, and activities.

Come and take action! There is only one life to live and let’s live it healthy!

Megan Garcia and Marisol Roman, graduates of Pedro Albizu Campos High School, participated in a training program where they learned about how to educate people about diabetes prevention and treatment. Those studies took place at Norwegian hospital.

Megan Garcia said, “My experience was educational, I learned that diabetes is not only hurting the community but it runs in her family. My grandfather has past away because of diabetes and my aunt was diagnosed with the chronic disease. Now I know how to take care of myself and my family and because of this I feel closer to the community.”

Marisol Roman stated.  “My experience with the 72 block by block program has been a very important experience as well. I came into this project not knowing much about diabetes, and while working with Dr. Steve Rothschild and Jaime Delgado I have learned life-changing skills to better my health as well as the health of other people from the community whether if you have diabetes or if you know someone with diabetes.  Now that I took this training I’m  comfortable and confident in talking to people about diabetes and that being part of this training, has been both beneficial and honorable.”

I myself, a current parent of one of the students at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School, felt that the experience was very educational and I learned a lot about diabetes. I now know how to eat healthier and how to be involved in the community to help others that have diabetes or are at high risk in getting diabetes and how to prevent it.  It was a wonderful experience!

What is diabetes? Any of several metabolic disorders marked by excessive discharge of urine and persistent thirst , esp. diabetes melliitis: a chronic disease of pancreatic origin marked by insulin deficiency that results in excess sugar in the blood and urine. This definition is from The American Heritage dictionary.