COUNCIL — The Zara Betterment Corporation of Carvers Creek has received a $200,000 grant from the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund’s Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative.

“We wrote a proposal for the renewal of last year’s grant,” said Berline Graham, one of the groups founders.

Graham expects the funds to arrive in July 2009 and the funding cycle ends June 30, 2012. This is the continuation of a grant the group received last year for the diabetes prevention program housed at the Bladen East Medical Clinic. The original grant was written in conjunction between the Zara Betterment Corporation and the Bladen East Medical Clinic in Carvers Creek.

“Zara is a non-profit 501(c)3 agency that has sponsored community services, youth programs and health care initiatives in Bladen County since 1984,” said Graham.

The funds awarded are part of phase II of the Health Disparities grant program, according to Graham.

The grant is available through the N. C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund provided through its Health Disparities Initiative. The initiative provides grants to community-based organizations who aim to reduce health disparities.

“They (Zara and Bladen East Medical Clinic) received a grant to target diabetes to reduce the number of minorities who do not have access to prevention, treatment and education on the disease,” said Graham.

The group was presented grant funds earlier this year by then Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue. The monies were for use at the Bladen East Medical Clinic in Carvers Creek to set up a program whereby patients could be screened for diabetes and if diagnosed with the disease, they can receive counseling on their options for treatment. The program also offers strategies for the prevention of diabetes.

The death rate from diabetes among African American residents in the state is 175 per 100,000 — twice the rate of white residents at 83 per 100,000 and higher than the rate for American Indians, which is 149 per 100,000, according to the HWTF Web site.

The HWTF in 2008 began a campaign to reduce the incidence of diabetes related to health care disparities in N.C. The diabetes-focused campaign is part of the Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative, according the HWTF Web site.