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Photo from May 13,
1999 "Equally At Risk: API Women Speak Out on Breast Cancer" Pictured with Survivors in bold: Top row: Assemblywoman Judy Chu, Mililani Awana-Perkins, Christina Dorame, Elling Chu, Heng Lam Foong, Dong Bok-Kim, Yuka Yamamoto, Mary Anne Foo Bottom row: Dr. Eileen Chun (facilitator), Jina Peiris, Susan Shinagawa, Cathy Masamitsu Missing from photo: Laling Okada and Dr. Marjorie Kagawa Singer (researcher) Photographer: Mieke Kramer |
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.
In October 2000, our breast health component merged with a community breast and cervical cancer partnership, funded via the CDC Foundation’s REACH 2010 initiative. This collaborative known as the PATH (Promoting Access to Health) for Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian women includes partners from UCLA School of Public Health, UCI School of Social Ecology, Orange County API Community Alliance, Guam Communications Network, Samoan National Nurses Association, Tongan Community Service Center, Families in Good Health, and PALS for Health. PATH is designed to research and create interventions for Cambodian, Chamorro, Laotian, Samoan, Thai, Tongan and Vietnamese women.
Since the inception of this component, PALS for Health has also been an active member of various local and statewide women’s health committees. PALS for Health co-chaired the API Task Force of Partnered for Progress Los Angeles Regional Cancer Partnership and was also a member of their Board of Directors from 1997 to 2000. We’re currently members of the API Advisory Committee of California Department of Health Services, Cancer Detection Section, Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program, and are also active in the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training (AANCART).
Of the various community collaborations we’ve been a part of, one of the highlights took place on May 13, 1999 when the API Task Force of Partnered for Progress Los Angeles Regional Cancer Partnership played an instrumental role in facilitating the first-ever convening of a multiethnic API breast cancer survivor speakers panel (see picture above). Appropriately named “Equally at Risk: API Women Speak Out on Breast Cancer” the panel was aimed at debunking the dangerous myth that API women are at low risk for breast cancer and also to encourage API women to access early detection. This standing room event was held at the Los Angeles Public Library in conjunction with Art.Rage.Us, an exhibit of creative works by women with breast cancer. We consequently teamed up with the API National Cancer Survivors Network a project of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, and The Breast Cancer Fund to convene a similar panel in Oakland in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The development and consequent achievements of our women’s health component would not have been possible without support from the Office of Minority Health, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, CDC Foundation, and Partnered for Progress Los Angeles Regional Cancer Partnership.
For more information on the Women's Health component, please call Mireya Muñoz at 213-627-4850 (e-mail mireyam@palsforhealth.org.
