Our women’s health component was developed in 1996 through the convening of a group of interpreters and staff who identified breast cancer to be a critical concern in the API community. Led by Karen Quintiliani-Hodgson and Heng Lam Foong, this initial team of breast health educators met over a span of 8 months to create linguistically and culturally appropriate workshops targeting limited English proficient (LEP) Cambodian, Chinese and Thai women.

Beginning in 1997, these health educators began facilitating in-language trainings at churches, temples, ESL classes, citizenship classes, and community service centers. We also began a successful collaboration with the UCLA Medical Center’s Iris Cantor Center for Mobile Mammography. It wasn’t long before the mobile mammography van became a familiar sight at various cultural and community events. Many low-income and underinsured women who qualified for the Breast Cancer Early Detection Program (BCEDP) received mammograms at the mobile mammography van. Our breast health educators were responsible for recruitment, education, interpretation, and assisted with follow-up.

The Pacific Islander component soon followed through a partnership with the Tongan Community Service Center in 1998. The highlight of this partnership was the facilitation of a community training which drew over 40 Tongan women and children, many who had never received breast health information in any shape or form. This training preceded a mammography screening of 9 women at a local church, the first time such an event had ever been conducted for the Tongan community in Los Angeles. In 1999, in partnership with the Tongan Community Service Center, Guam Communications Network and the Samoan National Nurses Association, we expanded the Pacific Islander component to include the Chamorro and Samoan communities.

In total, our breast health educators, all who are bilingual/bicultural and trained through American Cancer Society’s Special Touch program, facilitated over 20 workshops, and assisted in the screening and re-screening of over 350 Cambodian, Chamorro, Chinese, Samoan, Thai, Tongan and Vietnamese women in Los Angeles and Orange County.