Your Funds at Work: Komen Phoenix Grant Recipient Uses Funds to Raise Awareness Among Navajos

In Arizona’s Navajo communities, a lack of breast cancer resources coupled with cultural taboos make raising awareness about the disease challenging.
 
The Arizona Myeloma Network (AzMN), a second-year recipient of a Komen education grant, is addressing these issues through its Women Helping Women: The Diné Breast Cancer Awareness and Prevention Program. Through the program, more than 25 specially-trained Navajo women have provided cancer education and outreach services to more than 650 others in the Fort Defiance area of northern Arizona. Through one-on-one meetings and public events, the volunteers are not only helping to educate their neighbors, they are also helping to connect them with local medical resources. For a culture who believes that discussing such topics is a bad omen, the increased communication is huge step in the right direction.
 
In January, Fry’s Food Stores honored the AzMN’s work in the Navajo community with a stipend and a “Giving Hope a Hand” award. This is another example of how our community partners are working together to help create a world without breast cancer!

For more details about the program or the award, contact AzMN president Barbara Kavanagh through www.azmyelomanetwork.org or at (623) 388 6837.