Story of Impact: Raising Awareness of Breast Cancer Worldwide

Breast cancer is undeniably a major issue in the United States. But has the issue of breast cancer worldwide been overlooked? The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a major overseas partner of the Jewish Federation, has created the Women's Health Empowerment Program (WHEP) to ensure it has not been overlooked.

WHEP has made great strides in education and helping the rest of Jewish world learn more about breast cancer, by giving international women the best tool when it comes to breast cancer: education for early detection.

Through the WHEP's partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest breast cancer organization, the first Race for the Cure in Bosnia and Herzegovina was held in October 2008. 2,400 people participated in this race, and not only Jews. Muslims, Jews, Serbs, and Croats all walked together as a unified front in support of breast cancer education.

This issue is especially important for Jewish women. Jewish women have a greater propensity for certain kinds of breast cancer due to the prevalence of alterations in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes that one in 40 Jewish women of Ashkenazi and Eastern European descent carry. Carriers of this alteration are three to seven times more likely to develop breast cancer before the age of 50. This issue is pertinent to Jews all over the world and, with help from the JDC and our Jewish Federation, actions are being taken to change the fate of women worldwide.