~ Five organizations received funds to improve health care services for African immigrants, and other ethnic and racial groups~

 MINNEAPOLIS– UCare announced that its UCare Fund made financial grants totaling more than $237,000 in 2007 to five initiatives that support the health and well-being of. immigrants from African nations, disabled immigrants, and a research program aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in medicine.

By Cole Mallard

African immigrants living in the US State of Minnesota are losing ground economically, according to the US Census Bureau. In it’s most recent annual American Community Survey, one section describes some 80,000 Minnesotans. It says the median family income for Somalis, Ethiopians, Kenyans and others from East Africa has dropped more than 36 percent.  Barbara Ronningen of the Minnesota State Demographer’s office told Voice of America English to Africa reporter Cole Mallard that the problem exists “in large part [because of] the recession in 2001 and the fact that the recovery from the recession has been slow and [has] not created a great number of jobs.”