After a few problems with initial construction, the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation building has solidified the actual dirt foundation and is moving forward.
Federal and state funding has come in for the work and after the first construction company failed to complete Phase 1 of the plan, a new firm was hired according to Freddie White-Johnson, the foundation’s founder and president .
“It’s being built in three phases. Phase 1 was to prepare the site and get it ready for construction but we had to terminate the contract with B&B Construction and Management Company because of the delays in preparing the site,” White-Johnson said. “We had to go back and do Phase 1 all over. We lost money and now Phase 2 is in progress and things are going well. Hopefully, by March of 2024, that building will be up.”
She also continues to raise money for the construction as costs have risen since the initial plans were put in place.
“We need about $3.5 to $4 million since materials have gone up and are two to three times higher. We need another $800,000 to a million dollars,” she said.
The FLHCF was launched in 2004 and began its national fundraising campaign in 2015 to raise $2.5 million to be used solely for the construction costs of a 10,000 square-foot headquarters, to be known as the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation Center.
The center will sit on 5.5 acres of land in Ruleville.
“We paid for five acres of land costing us $100,000. The first two acres we bought from (the late) Ruleville resident, Luster Bayless. Then we turned around and bought another three acres of land from him. Billy Marlow in Ruleville donated a half-acre of land to the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation and that ½ acre was appraised for $7,500.”
Money has come in from a Delta resident who is building more than just roads and infrastructure across the Delta and the Magnolia State. She noted the foundation has received monies from former state senator and now Central District Road Commissioner Willie Simmons and federal funds from District 2 Congressman Bennie Thompson.
“We got money for sidewalks from the state through the road commission and we were also fortunate enough to get money from the State of Mississippi – $1.5 million from a special appropriation for the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation in 2021 to help with the construction. We were also allocated $2.25 million from the federal government under the leadership of Congressman Bennie Thompson. He assisted us with the allocation,” she said.
The foundation building with have office space along with rooms for advocacy, education and research.
“We will be training community health workers who will go out and screen for the cancers we are trying to address,” she said. “The building will have four rooms dedicated to four people who were instrumental in the foundation who have passed.”
• Dr. Alfio Rausa who died from prostate cancer was the chairman of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation.
• Edgar Donahoe, a former Sunflower County supervisor who died of stomach cancer.
• Past board member and attorney, Carver Randle, who died of heart disease.
• Francis Greene, an advocate and a big supporter of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation will also be memorialized with a room name.
“We will dedicate these four rooms in their honor to keep their legacy alive,” she said.
In the meantime, programs to help those get educated about and deal with cancer for both men and women have begun.
“We are assisting women who need mammograms who are age 40-64 who have no insurance, no Medicare nor Medicaid. We assist those women to get mammograms and pap tests with a partnership with the Mississippi Department of Health.”
The foundation also helps men with prostate cancer screenings, training and education as well.
“There is training going on in Montgomery County with funding from the MDH from a grant from the CDC,” she said.
To learn more or to donate to the 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation, send a check made out to Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation, P.O. Box 755, Ruleville, MS 38771. Or go to their website, www.flhcf.com/donate.
