Roots Community Health Center was started by Dr. Noha Aboelata in East Oakland to help people who weren’t getting enough care. She especially wanted to make sure that the mostly Black people who came to her clinics for care were treated by doctors and nurses who looked like them.
“It’s absolutely critical,” Dr. Aboelata told Reggie Aqui on ABC7 Mornings. Roots Community Health Center was built on the idea that everyone should have a safe place to go where they could feel understood. It’s much easier to do that when you see someone who looks like you.
Gilead Sciences is giving $250,000 to Roots Community Health Center and 20 other groups in the Bay Area so that disadvantaged students can learn about health care. Biopharmaceutical business based in Foster City hopes that the $5 million donation will help fill a need in the Bay Area.
Latinos and Black people make up almost 30% of the Bay Area’s population, but only about 10% of doctors who are licensed. Gilead uses figures from the California Department of Healthcare Access and Information to support this claim.
“We know health equity plays an important role in insuring people get access to medical care and preventive services and if we don’t help create that in our community there’s no way we can do that anywhere else,” Carmen Villar, VP Gilead Sciences, said.
Other winners in the Bay Area are UCSF, the East Oakland Youth Development Center, and ALAS of Half Moon Bay.
