The Rev. Anthony Evans is in the process of distributing thousands of free pharmacy discount cards to African-American churches in Savannah.

The cards are intended to help lower the cost of some prescription drugs and help alleviate one of the reasons some people don’t fill their prescriptions or take them as they should.

Evans, a Savannah native, is the executive director of the National Black Church Initiative, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of African-American churches working to reduce disparities in access to health care, education, technology and housing.

He was in town this week to raise awareness of his group’s plan to host a series of local seminars over the next year on overcoming drug noncompliance.

The group plans to gather information on drug noncompliance in Savannah’s African-American community and publish the findings next year.

“From there, we’ll create a model program on what cities around the country, hospitals and clinics around the country, can use to eliminate the issue of drug noncompliance in terms of getting people to take their medication on time and getting African Americans to take their medication as instructed,” Evans said.

According to the American Heart Association, 12 percent of Americans never fill some important prescriptions. Another 12 percent fill the prescription but don’t take the medication.

The NBCI believes the problem is worse in the African-American community.

Evans points to a Journal of the National Medical Association report showing the African-Americans had a 12 percent lower adherence rate than whites in a study of Medicaid-insured patients who were given first-time prescriptions for oral anti-diabetic agents.

The issue has sparked the NBCI to create a seven-year project called the Health Emergency Declaration.

“The black church is doing this largely because our horrible health numbers,” Evans said. “We strongly believe if the black church doesn’t step up with a credible, scientificly-based program like the Health Emergency Declaration, our folks are going to fall dead in the congregation.”