Program reaches out to Aboriginal women

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A new program is being launched to help women from several ethnic groups recognize and understand the symptoms and risks of breast cancer. Called the Multicultural Breast Health Peer Educator Project, the program will find women from Southeast Asian, Indo-Canadian and Aboriginal populations to teach other women from their culture about breast health. These women will be called peer educators.

There are several reasons why these populations were targeted. Firstly, these cultures tended to either ignore cancer as a threat or considered it too sensitive a subject for discussion. Secondly, particularly for the Aboriginal population, access to information and treatment of breast cancer is difficult because of the remoteness of their population. Simply trying to get to a hospital or clinic is a major undertaking for Aboriginal women in remote communities.

Peer educators are more effective at presenting this information because they are aware of the cultural barriers involving breast cancer.

The women in these target populations were also more willing to receive the information about cancer from a women from their own culture.

Joanne PomPana and Lynda Cocker were the two women chosen as peer educators for the Aboriginal population. Working with Screen Test, a breast cancer early detection program in Edmonton, these women have already contacted different health groups that work with Aboriginal women.

Cocker and PomPana show a video, Echoes of the Sisters, that was produced by the First Nations Breast Cancer Society. They do, however, face obstacles. Aboriginal people don't consider cancer to be that big of a health issue, plus there is a resistance to conventional treatments. But they have been able to establish contacts within the Aboriginal communities that will lead to greater acceptance in the future.