A6
CrossRoadsNews
“Our people perish from lack of knowledge. I don’t want to lose a brother, a friend, or a neighbor because he failed to get a simple prostate test.”
Event to explore issues of death, dying “Death and Dying: An Inevitable Event” will take place April 26 at the Masjid An Nur in Lithonia. The 2 p.m. seminar, hosted by Essential Living for Muslim Women Inc., will explore the issues around death and dying. Bring
Your Qur’an. Registration is $15 and is available online at EL4MW.org. Masjid An Nur is at 1996 Stone Mountain Lithonia Road. For more information, call Safiyah Abdul Khaaliq at 770-365-2277 or Thaahirah Stephens at 404-518-9728.
Churches hosting sessions on health The DeKalb Consortium of Churches will host “Healing from the Inside Out” on May 2 at the Porter Sanford III Performing Arts Center in Decatur. The 9 a.m.-2 p.m. event is co-hosted by Hillside Presbyterian, Holy Cross Episcopalian, Peace Lutheran, Trinity Presbyterian
and Christian Jubilee FWBC in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and the DeKalb County Board of Health. It will include sessions for teens, breakfast and lunch. For more information, contact Peace Lutheran Church at 404-2891474 or call John Brooks at 404-213-3205.
Wellness
April 18, 2009
DeKalb Initiative for Children raise By McKenzie Jackson
When Lenean Priester moved to Fulton County four years ago, her then-16-year-old daughter almost fell victim to a man who was helping them find a home in Atlanta. When Priester’s daughter reported the attempted abuse Lenean Priester to law enforcement, she found out that a week earlier, an 11-year-old girl had told some adults that the man – Rodney Williams – had been raping her for six months. Williams’ arrest in September 2005 revealed that he had also been sexually and physically abusing the 11-yearold’s two sisters also. A Fulton County jury sentenced him in February 2006 to 100 years in prison. Priester said the attempted molestation of her daughter forced her to come to grips with the sexual abuse she suffered as an 8-year-old girl growing up in Detroit, Mich. “It’s hard,” she said. “Sometimes if I’m touched at night I wake up shaken because it takes me back to what happened.” Now 40 years old, Priester is a member of the DeKalb Initiative for Chil-
“The rate of child crimes over the Internet has bee increasing and in that realm it’s stranger on stranger usually, or just a brief contact in terms of talking ov the Internet as opposed to a family member that you would see on a regular basis.” Gwen Keyes Fleming, DeKalb District Attorney
dren and Families and the Community Partnership for Protecting Children, which seeks to create awareness about the growing problem of child sexual abuse and neglect in DeKalb. On April 25, the group is hosting its first “DeKalb Stand 4 Children’s Day” at the Peachcrest Unit of the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club in Decatur. The 10 a.m.-2 p.m. event will feature workshops and discussions for families, parents and youth that will touch on different aspects of child abuse and neglect. “Children’s Day” is one of many events being held around the country in recognition of April being National Child Abuse Prevention Month. There will be sessions that explain to young children the unacceptable ways that abusers will try to touch their bodies. They will also teach signs to notice if a child is being abused or neglected, as well as sessions on drugs, alcohol, gang violence and health.
The event wi a march and ral missioner Larr
Larry Johnson
to ZIP Code 3 highest percent and neglect cas County. Since Augu been organizing ings with neig 30032 to addres “You can talk day long, but yo tion,” he said. “F child abuse and there, which is
Health fair to offer prostate, other scre Men can get a free screening for prostate cancer on April 25 at Hillcrest Church of Christ’s annual Community Health Fair. The Decatur church is offering the screenings in conjunction with Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, which has been targeting African-American men as part of it early detection TRIM program. Nationally, almost 230,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer annually. African-American men are 61 percent more likely than white men to develop the cancer and nearly 2.5 times more likely to die from the disease because theirs is often diagnosed late when it has spread beyond the prostate and treatment is more difficult. William “Tank” Sims, a church member who was diagnosed with the disease last year, is helping spread the word about early detection. He said that if he could get the cancer, it can
happen to anybody. “I’ve always been a health-conscious person,” said Sims, 58, who has run the Atlanta Peachtree Road Race for the last 18 years. He began taking the annual prostate-specific antigen test, or PSA, when he reached 50, so when his doctor noticed elevated levels, further tests were done to diagnose the cancer and begin treatment. Since then Sims has been on a mission to encourage men to get screened. The health fair will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will also be screenings for vision, dental, spine, heart, nervous system and kidney diseases. Sims, his doctor, Dr. James Bennett, Midtown Urology and other prostate cancer survivors will be on a panel, discussing the illness at 11 a.m. Sims says he knows how difficult it is to get men to discuss health issues, particularly prostate cancer. “Knowledge is power,” he said. A PSA test can cost up to $200 from
a private physi church’s health African-Americ years old, men w prostate cancer, age of 50 are e screenings. Richard Bar minister, said t ted to helping ed about the lifesav “Our people knowledge,” he lose a brother, a because he faile tate test.” During the will also encour get heart health activities like g sports clinics. T Snapfinger Roa tion, visit www. 404-289-7046.
Tucker students gather pennies to fight l The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Pennies for Patients campaign got a big boost from students at Tucker Elementary School last month. The students collected $1,960.81 between January 20 and February 13 to help the society fight blood cancers liker leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma. Their fund-raising activities in-
cluded a hat day, on which students donated a dollar to wear their favorite cap during school hours, and a homeroom competition to see which class could collect the most pennies. Paige Camp’s seventh-grade class collected $600 and earned a pizza party. The Pennies for Patients campaign supports programs of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. To make it
easy for schools lesson plans an als on blood-re appropriate vid coin-counting t Since 1994, elementary, mi students nation lions of dollar dimes and quar