New immigrants face significant barriers in accessing health care:
language barriers, lack of culturally competent caregivers, uninsured status and lack of familiarity with the public health system.

African Services assists over 1,000 immigrants each year to access essential health care and treatment.

Many newcomers from the African Diaspora are in urgent need of care due to lack of care in their country or origin and also at high risk for HIV infection due to limited resources for testing and prevention. Providing access to care for this underserved and hard-to-reach population is central to our mission.

African Services has sought to fill the gap in health care for African immigrants with integrated health programs that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to reach the most vulnerable segments of our community. Our programs are designed to address health disparities, provide maximum opportunity for immigrants to obtain healthcare and ensure that all New Yorkers have access to HIV testing, care and support.

We do this through a community-based model of care led by peer community health workers who speak French, English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Wolof, Pulaar, Mandingo, Soninke and nearly 20 additional African languages.

They conduct street outreach and health promotion in all five boroughs, help poor immigrants enroll in low-fee health care, provide hospital escort and medical interpretation for immigrant patients at hospitals and clinics throughout the city, and staff our on-site testing center, as well as a range of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support programs.

Referrals to care are provided through a network partner hospitals throughout the city, who in turn refer immigrant patients to African Services for care and support.

African Services has conceived, developed, implemented, and evaluated a full continuum of HIV, TB and STD interventions to meet the needs of immigrants and continues to create innovative programs responding to the changing health needs of the community.