DHA awards grants to five Delta organizations

STONEVILLE — Delta Health Alliance (DHA) has awarded grants to five Delta organizations bringing health education and services to residents of all ages in seven Delta counties.

Two projects receiving funding will focus on women’s health. Delta State University will receive $30,000 to fund the SMART project in Bolivar, Coahoma and Washington counties.

Women’s health is also the focus of a $30,000 grant going to the Delta Cotton Belles of Washington County.

Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians Foundation will receive $12,423 for a tobacco cessation project focusing on nearly 4,000 fourth- and fifth-graders in Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Sunflower, Tallahatchie and Tunica counties.

In an effort to address the Delta’s nursing shortage, the Delta Health Alliance and Coahoma Community College will team up to offer a Health Professionals in Nursing Summer Enrichment Project to ninth-grade students in five Delta counties – Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Tallahatchie and Tunica. This summer project will receive $27,660.

The fifth project will help residents in four Quitman county towns – Crenshaw, Darling, Marks and Lambert – gain access to fresh foods. The $29,900 Get Healthy Quitman County Project, through a partnership with Quitman County Development Organization, is a high-yield growing project for local growers through the use of hoop houses for growing vegetable crops.