The Women's Breast & Heart Initiative
- Brianna Olive
- Nov 15, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 23, 2018
A Deserving Organization
As I’m sure it has already been made clear, I am particularly passionate about an organization that works every day to save women’s lives. The Women’s Breast & Heart Initiative (WBHI) is a nonprofit organization that believes in early detection and prevention against breast cancer and heart disease— a fairly unique approach when you compare it to that of other, similar organizations. The organization believes that these two simple notions are, in a way, more important than the cures themselves. Not to say that the cures are not important, they are of course. However, the idea begins with educating as many people as possible on preventative measures to significantly reduce the number of these cases. The corresponding element in this approach is the emphasis on early detection—if the diseases are caught early enough, they are treatable and beatable. This is why WBHI stresses the importance of regular heart screenings, hypertension screenings, and mammograms.
WBHI spends their weekdays working to raise awareness, visibility, money, and gathering volunteers. The money raised goes directly to resources needed to educate the public, as well as towards healthy food, equipment, and doctors needed to provide women with free screenings and mammograms. They then spend their weekends going door-to-door in targeted neighborhoods based off the area’s need, often where families with a lack of resources reside. The volunteers speak to as many women as possible and sign them up for free mammograms and screening appointments. WBHI then brings the equipment and doctors directly to each neighborhood to eliminate the chances of women struggling to get to appointments because of a lack of transportation. Finally, every women who receives screenings and mammograms is given the opportunity to return year after year, establishing an ordered system of detection and prevention among the population of people who often don’t have access to their own health care resources.
This is only touching on some of what the WBHI does in the community. This organization has given myself, as well as many other university students a feeling of purpose in our communities. It has given us something to look forward to during the weeks, as well as given us a sense of accomplishment and pride. We have been rewarded time after time for the work we’ve put into this organization, simply by seeing the excitement and appreciation from women we have affected. After only my first time volunteering with them, I knew that it was something worthwhile and I wanted to share my experiences with others, so that's what I've done.
ABC News recently shared a story where they wrote about how structural systems are at play in regards to women’s abilities to have access to health care, leaving some minorities at a higher risk of death due to breast cancer and other diseases because of their lack of resources. However, WBHI is working to directly combat issues like these, which is why I truly encourage each of you to make a donation, small or large; every dollar helps. WBHI is an organization that is constantly working to make a change, and they are deserving of support from every single one of you, whether that’s through donations, volunteering, or other means, I STRONGLY encourage you to take the next step with WBHI, you won’t regret it.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus from Seinfeld, Arrested Development, Saturday Night Live, and more, was diagnosed late last year with breast cancer, and now this year she was proud to announce that she has successfully beat breast cancer. With her wise words in mind, "I’m not someone who likes looking back. I look forward." Let's help others move forward by getting involved and working towards a change.
Go ahead and click the link to donate, you can do this several ways: here in this post, or through the donation links attached to different pages on my website. It's very easy to do!
In addition, I do ask that each of you who donate leave a comment here so that I am able to see that this post made a difference!
Let's help make this change!
Thank you Brittney! Help us spread the word! :)
WOW! I love your message, promotion, post. Very well put together! #WHBI
I remember that Andres! We'd love to have you back sometime!
I'm glad to hear you say that Grace, because that's exactly what we're trying to do! It's always important to be mindful of your body.
Thanks for the support Alexus! It's always appreciated!