NEW YORK--The Avon Breast Health Access Fund has awarded a grant of $23,961 to Cancer Care for a program to increase awareness of the life-saving benefits of early breast cancer detection among low-income Orthodox Jewish women in New York City. Cancer Care is a nonprofit organization that provides free professional services to people with cancer and their families,
The program will serve large enclaves of Orthodox Jewish women who, because of language, cultural beliefs, and socioeconomic reasons, receive inadequate health care. These women are not exposed to popular media that have long promoted breast health education. Moreover, because of modesty, the word breast is rarely used in these communities.
The program will provide free educational seminars on the benefits of early detection in the Orthodox Jewish communities, located primarily in areas of Brooklyn. The seminars will be given in English, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian, and, afterwards, the women will be given the opportunity to have a no- or low-cost mammogram and clinical exam.
