One Woman At a Time

The nature of the discrimination and disadvantages  that women face, permeate women's social, productive and reproductive roles in all societies. Women lag behind men on virtually every indicator of social and economic status. They constitute a larger proportion of the poor in all societies and they are  relatively powerless to change the conditions of their lives - to break the bonds of poverty or to improve their health quality of life. In the past decades it has been shown that women’s health status has an    important impact on the health of their children, the family and the community and environment. At Community Health Mission, women’s health is an important priority.  In conjunction with our four Gynecologists and the National Black Leadership Initiative for Cancer- Savannah (NBLIC-III), an educational program was developed to complement medical services provided to our patients. This program trained members of the community to educate, support and motivate women to take charge of their health, and use preventive services such as pap-smears and mammograms.

The program takes into consideration the cultural match between community health workers and patients. A grant from the American Cancer Society was obtained to implement this program. In 2006, Community Health Mission & NBLIC-III trained 14 health promoters, 6 of them cancer survivors, during a 3-day training program. The goals of the program are to educate women about issues such as nutrition, osteoporosis, breast and cervical cancer, HIV. They would also learn the importance of regular mammograms and pap-smears.

Nancy Lyham, Breast Cancer Survivor and CHM Women's Health Program Promoter