A city riddled by racial and economic segregation doesn’t offer much support for the disproportionate health disparities plaguing the residents of Southeast D.C. With a focus on environmental and communal activism, some local health experts and advocates are pushing to change the status quo.
“I think doing it in a way which is more community-based is really what health is about,” Dr. Chaand Ohri, a DMV-based internal medicine specialist, recently told The Informer. “Rather than the business of medicine, we want to be in the idea of health being a community collaboration. People will feel like they are part of this clinic, part of this collaboration. We want to hear from people.”
That mentality led Ohri to Southeast’s R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center on Feb. 22, where he joined scores of medical professionals, advocates, and D.C. residents in the launch of Pan-African Community Action (PACA)’s inaugural People’s Pan-African Wellness Front (PPWF).
A monthly initiative rooted in equity and self-sufficiency, the daylong event shone a light on a pivotal trek to championing health care — knowing that the work, in part, starts within the community.
“We’re trying to empower the people to take health into their own hands,” said PACA member Bree Hemphill, “and give them alternatives to the current profit-driven health system.”
Hemphill’s claims are not empty.
Decades worth of studies, such as the University of Maryland’s 2004 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy, highlight systemic barriers to health care access for low-income and predominantly Black neighborhoods in the District, including disproportionate effects on factors like disease burden and outcomes.
As recent as 2024, DC Health and Academic Prep Program at George Washington University examined food insecurity in the Southeast quadrant, noting that food deserts and limited access to nutrition increase residents’ risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease — illustrating the local structural conditions that shape health outcomes in the same communities PPWF aims to serve.
“[People] can leave here with an understanding of health, [where] they don’t always have to pay the copay to get someone to tell them they have high blood pressure,” Hemphill told The Informer. “They can come here and see that we can do these things for ourselves. And if we’re able to do these things for ourselves, then there’s no limit [to the] things that we can build outside of the systems we’re used to.”
Education and Combating Medical Racism
During the Feb. 22 event, Ohri recounted memories of a 12-year career in D.C. — some of which include witnessing patients lose access to health insurance, and others on learning how to recognize what he calls medical racism.
In one case, the internal medicine specialist repeatedly treated the same patient for asthma, initially believing the inhaler was being used incorrectly due to a learned mindset: “if something goes wrong, it is the patient’s fault.”
Later, the patient invited Ohri to visit his home.
“I saw carpet which was moldy, I saw black mold in his kitchen and that changed me,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, no matter what medicines I give this person, if you’re not solving the root cause, you’re just going to stay sick. And I’m going to keep blaming you or medicine will keep blaming you.’”
While working with another group and on another home visit, he recognized a mold outbreak in a patient’s home and wrote a note stating the resident would die if she remained in the apartment. After she moved out, her health improved and she never returned as a patient.
“I need my patients to know this: they’re not sick because they’re doing something wrong,” Ohri told The Informer. “They’re sick because the system is built against them. Then the same system is going to profit off your illness.”
To address root causes, some organizers say political education is essential.
From pollution affecting food, air and water, to mobility issues, police violence and high-risk pregnancies, the foundation lies in Southeast residents overcoming the realities of a system designed against them, Hemphill adds.
“Not just coming here to get the service but to tell people this is how you do it. This is how you read these numbers,” she continued. “If this number is high, that means this. If it’s this low, that means this.”
The Importance of ‘Community Collaboration Groups’
Organizers drew inspiration from the Black Panther Party’s People’s Free Medical Clinics and Cuba’s state-run health care model, combining direct services with a broader push for community control and long-term self-determination over health care access.
As Black culture and music set the scene, Feb. 22 provided free services, including blood pressure screenings, glucose tests, hygiene products, medical supplies, health information and guidance for preventive care.
Ohri, who provided glucose tests to attendees, said community collaboration at the intersection of health and justice is what brought him to R.I.S.E Demonstration Center.
“What we need is these community collaboration groups like PACA, which are doing this wonderful initiative to be able to go to people and meet them in their neighborhoods,” he told The Informer. “Every time I’m working, I always feel like it’s not enough. Rather than the patients coming to me, I want to go to them.”
Georgette Gray learned about the event just hours earlier through word of mouth, and made a point of attending, highlighting its importance for the health of her community.
“This is just what we need, you need to be informed on,” Gray, 67, said. “If you have health issues, why not get them all checked out? But if you’re one of those ones that want to slack and don’t want to do anything about your health, then that’s on you. But I’m going to take care of me.”
Gray said her results showed no issues with her blood pressure or cholesterol — information she wanted to know. She called events like this a blessing.
“You don’t know who next,” Gray said. “So, why not get all you can get now? I just lost my niece two years ago, she had lung cancer. But I see a lot of people on the street, they have nowhere to go, they not taking care of their health. And your health is important.”
Hemphill said the event will recur every fourth Sunday, as part of what PACA calls their survival program.
“We’re trying to empower the people to take health into their own hands and give them alternatives to the current profit-driven health system,” Hemphill told The Informer, adding that many Southeast D.C. residents struggle to access health care, citing co-pays, lack of insurance, employment-based coverage, transportation barriers and mobility issues.
She emphasized that the community can help itself without a medical degree or a paycheck.
“They can leave here with an understanding of health that they don’t always have to pay the copay to get someone to tell them they have high blood pressure. They can come here, and [see] that we [can] do these things for ourselves,” she said. “And if we’re able to do these things for ourselves, then there’s no limit of things that we can build outside of the systems that we are used to.”