The NYC Muslim Community faces many serious health challenges and disparities. Immigrants too often face a lack of language access and some ethnicities suffer from epidemic rates of Diabetes (28% among South Asians). Because of stigma around mental health issues, many Muslims suffer from untreated stress. And low income Muslims may suffer from other untreated conditions.

 MCN Health Education Programs 

The current focus of MCN’s health programs is to offer culturally tailored
outreach & education for:

• Diabetes within at risk populations
• Smoking Cessation and Prevention
• Increasing access to Health & Wellness at the Mosque 
• To Educate about Swineflu (H1N1) prevention and partner with health providers

MCN has been active in setting up health fairs and outreach projects at a variety of local mosques, with great help from the Dream Project, the Free Clinic, and Heart2 Heart Medical students of NYU. We thank our partners and funders for increasing MCN’s opportunity to serve.

 Programs 

Tobacco, Cancer & Heart Disease: In December 2008, MCN launched NAFIS SALAAM, an innovative, culturally tailored program for Smoking Prevention & Cessation in partnership with Islamic Medical Association of North America, funded by the American Legacy Foundation.

Though over 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking related illnesses, the Muslim community is not immune to this addiction. MCN staff is currently working to measure rates of smoking in our diverse community, and reaching out through mosques, community based organizations, social networking and new media. See www.nafissalaam.org and the MuslimsAgainstSmokingblog for more information about this ongoing project.

Please also see our multilingual Nafis Salaam Fliers and our videos on YouTube.

In 2009 we launched an indepth survey of community needs and perceptions and discovered many issues of concern (LINK) To learn more about community needs, we will maintain the 5 MINUTE COMMUNITY SURVEY ABOUT SMOKING — Please fill it out at Survey Monkey and for our survey results of over 400 community members please see Results.

Diabetes: In early 2010 MCN joined the Institute for Leadership to promote Diabetes Awareness and Sugar Level Monitoring. To address this very serious issue, we are asking mosques to join this program with trainings and surveys beginning in April 2010. Please Contact us to participate.

In 2009 MCN also provided weekly mosque outreach to build awareness about Swine Flu (H1N1) – see our Emergency Preparedness section as well as newsletters for more information.

MCN applauds the work of American Muslim Health Professionals, Muslim Mental Health Institute, CSAAH and the NYC Department of Health, as well as the many Muslim health professionals serving humanity both at home and in the global community. We are ready to partner on research or education activities for our underserved Muslim New Yorkers.

On March 5, MCN coordinated two mosque outreaches to help promote health services tailored for Muslim New Yorkers.
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