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The Challenge

Joining THE 50 MILLION POUND CHALLENGE means becoming part of something exciting, life-altering, historic, and tremendously beneficial! Not only for you, but to others in your family and community, as well as to future generations.
Why Join?

Participating in The Challenge is not just about shedding those extra pounds — though that is critical to your health and well-being.
It's about all of us coming together and looking out for each other as we work to take more control of our lives. It's about taking the time to reach out and lock hands as we join forces to fight the very real risk that being overweight poses to ourselves, our families, and our community.

The Crisis
The number one health crisis facing all Americans is being overweight. Two out of every three adults (66%) today are considered to be overweight, or even worse, obese. Even more troubling, 17% of all children in the U.S. are now overweight. The statistics for African Americans are even more alarming—where almost 80% of adult women and 67% of adult men are overweight. Equally worrisome is that 20% of African-American teenagers between the ages 12-19 are overweight, and this number appears to be rising.

Our teenagers are developing Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and in some cases, early signs of heart disease. This decline in our youths' health can be attributed to poor diet, lack of exercise, and inadequate medical guidance.

What We Can Do
The very good news is that we have the ability to reverse these unhealthy trends! For many of us it's not just a matter of fitting into a smaller size, but a matter of life and death! THE CHALLENGE can do so much, not just for our physical health, but for our minds and spirit too. Below are just a few of the many things I hope we'll accomplish together.

Shed those excess pounds, achieve healthier weights, and reduce our risk for life-threatening diseases.
Unite as a community and pool our strength and resources to overcome the health problems that afflict us.
Learn more about our bodies and what we can do to live healthier, longer lives.

Teach our youth the importance of making healthy lifestyle decisions that will benefit them for years to come.

Yours in The Challenge,
Ian K. Smith, M.D.

AIDS is the leading cause of death for African-Americans between the ages of 24 and 44 in the United States. Out of every 50 men, one is living with HIV. For Black women, the ratio is one in 160. The Black Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS is an international program sponsored by The Balm in Gilead, Inc., a not for profit organization based in Richmond, Va, that assists churches throughout the U.S., Caribbean and Africa to become community centers for AIDS education and compassion.

Black churches have the power and responsibility to change the course of the AIDS epidemic. The goal is to provide prayer, leadership, compassion and information to help the families in our congregation and community who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

Although Black Americans represent only 12% of the U.S. population, they account for half of AIDS cases diagnosed in 2005. Black people also account for a disproportionate share of HIV/AIDS diagnoses in states/areas with confidential name based HIV reporting.

Mount Jezreel Baptist Church is the site for one of 26 internship sites, across the U.S. and Cameroon, as part of the African American HIV University’s Community Mobilization College (AAHU-CMC). Sponsored by the Black Aids Institute, the AAHU-CMC is designed to provide participants with the skills to mobilize African-American communities through Traditional Black Institutions, Community Based Organizations and AIDS Service Organizations utilizing concrete concepts, structured ideas, networking mechanisms and action planning to get started and project management tools to monitor the mobilization effort.

The Black AIDS Institute’s mission is to stop the AIDS pandemic in Black communities by engaging and mobilizing Black institutions and individuals and groups to take action to facilitate change. Community stakeholders, opinion leaders, professionals, academics, faith leaders, business leaders, political leaders and concerned individuals are brought together to examine, prioritize, plan and execute an effort that will result in impactful changes within their community.

MJBC, through the Project Care Health and Wellness Ministry, will arm each member of Mount Jezreel with the necessary awareness and information so that each man, woman and child can share within their sphere of influence—in the District of Columbia, Prince Georges and Montgomery counties and Northern Virginia—to help eliminate the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is the name of the virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV/AIDS is a disease that destroys the body’s ability to protect itself from getting sick. The virus destroys CD4+T cells that are critical for normal functioning of the immune system.

If you have HIV in your body, you may not have any symptoms. This means you could pass the disease to someone else and not even know it. On the other hand, HIV can produce many symptoms, such as a common cold or flu.

A person with HIV is called “HIV-positive.” The only way to know if you are HIV-positive is to get tested. Most cities have public testing sites where you can be tested for free. You may call your health department or the hotline ran by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at 1-800-342-AIDS (2437) for more information.

HIV/AIDS can be spread by contact with the bodily fluid of an infected person. This can happen when needles are shared, or even through contact with fluids on tattoo needles.

HIV/AIDS can also be spread through sexual intercourse with a person who has HIV//AIDS. This includes vaginal, oral or anal sex between a man and a woman or between two men or between two women. Knowing your status is essential and it can be only known if you have been tested.