When Cynthia Alford pointed her camera at a shuttered roller-skating rink, she saw one ally of a “silent killer” that has stalked her for 30 years and endangers the kids from her church.
Alford is one of 11 members of New Haven’s black community who received digital cameras to document root causes of diabetes. They displayed their photos Friday in the City Hall atrium.
They took the 48 photos as part of an effort by Yale-Griffin Hospital Prevention Research Center and the Connecticut Health Foundation to tackle a deadly disease — Type 2 diabetes — that afflicts African-Americans almost twice as often as whites. The preventable disease is showing up in children.
Alford, who grew up in the Dixwell neighborhood and is 47, knows firsthand about diabetes: She has had it since she was 17. She has been on disability leave from her job at SNET for a host of health problems, including eight knee and hand surgeries.
In one photo on display, she captured a barrier to better health for obese shoppers on limited incomes: the higher cost of healthful food. The photo showed a 10-pound bag of “Great Value” sugar for sale for $4 and a much smaller package of Splenda for $8.
Participants in the project noted the lack of exercise options for adults and public spaces for kids to play in their community, another barrier to staying fit and healthy. (Another barrier: too few doctors.) Alford brought along her camera when she took kids from her church, St. Matthew’s Freewill Baptist, roller-skating at Wheel World in Wallingford.
Then she took a follow-up photo. “This is the closest place we could take them,” Alford lamented. “Now it’s closed down.”
Sharon Moore took this photo of the Stetson Library. The caption reads: “They were going to close this library. It’s the only place around here for kids to hang out after school. Kids are jumping out of their seats. They’ve been sitting all day in school. Need someplace safe to run around and play.”
Most of the photographers in the project have been training as “community health advisors” for the past four years in an effort to combat diabetes. (Read a full story about the project here.) The participants include Kouri Simmons, pictured in between Alford and Moore…
… Lillian Richardson, Alice Johnson, Christine Burruss …
… Naomi Kelly, Ruby Slade, Pastor Audrey Tinsley, and research assistant Maurice Williams.
Cardiologist Forrester “Woody” Lee, a Yale medical professor, said during a ceremony Friday accompanying the City Hall exhibit that he regularly sees patients from New Haven’s black community who wrestle with obesity, and thus hypertension and diabetes as well. “It’s not just about willpower,” Lee said. “They’re really victimized by the circumstances they live in… Healthy communities help healthy parents raise healthy children.”