The Breast Health Foundation was launched in 2002 to raise awareness of breast health among women through a series of community based education projects and creating awareness via community health facilities.
The projects currently employ six women, themselves breast cancer survivors, who give talks at churches, places of employment and public clinics about breast health, breast self-examination and the importance of early detection. Fourteen years on and there has been a noticeable increase in the number of women being diagnosed early.
Over the years the organisation has, through expansion, based itself in the Vaal/Sedibeng area, Cape Town and Durban. The women based in those areas facilitate educational talks, counselling and patient navigation. These educators are also at the regional breast care centres to assist the patients that have been referred and provide counseling if diagnosed.
To date our community educators have directly impacted 72 811 women through community education projects and have made 291 clinic visits. In total, 2913 women have been navigated and 376 diagnosed with various stages of breast cancer throughout all our active areas.
Bosom Buddies (BB) was established as a project of the BHF, a support group for survivors and their family and friends. The group aims to provide emotional and informative support to all individuals diagnosed with breast cancer and is run by survivor volunteers. The ‘buddies’ provide support to people affected by breast cancer at point of diagnosis and during treatment. BB hosts public meetings in Johannesburg every seven (7) weeks and speakers are invited to share knowledge and experiences with the buddies.
Buddies for Life, a bi-monthly lifestyle magazine, is published by Word for Word Media on behalf of the Breast Health Foundation. In sustaining the aims of the Breast Health Foundation. All of the persons involved with Buddies for Life are either medical or healthcare professionals, and they have been affected by breast cancer themselves or have been inspired by a breast cancer survivor. Each issue of Buddies contains a section dedicated to the early detection of breast cancer.
The Breast Health Foundations purpose is to:
- increase the awareness of breast health;
- promote education and treatment and
- provide support in respect of breast health.
Our mission is to
- create breast health awareness in the community,
- ensure individual access to information,
- potentiate access to appropriate healthcare resources,
- create an ongoing audit of operational effectiveness and
- offer emotional and informative support.
And through our projects, we have succesfully managed to realise great results.
You can connect with us on a daily through our social media pages:
:
BHF: https://www.facebook.com/BreastHealthFoundation/
BB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/31260668033/?ref=br_tf
Buddies For Life: https://www.facebook.com/BFLMagazine/?fref=ts
EBC: https://www.facebook.com/groups/903665216386353/
BHF: @BreastBhf
Buddies For Life: @BFLmagazine
This post was written by R.Vanessa Mthombeni for The Breast Health Foundation
ABC - Advocates For Breast Cancer: South Africa 