When Susan G. Komen invited me to participate in the pilot project team for the new Breast Cancer Education Toolkit for Hispanic/Latino Communities, I was very motivated. This program would give me the opportunity to share the experience I had acquired working as outreach coordinator at the Consulate of Mexico in Philadelphia, and through organizing multiple education events with the Ventanilla de Salud (VDS). The VDS is a program that was created in 2003 to address one of the top priorities of the Mexican Consular Network: improving access to health services and promoting a culture of preventive health care among Mexicans in the United States.

This process gave me a more accurate perspective on breast health and breast cancer, and helped me to better understand the common problems that all the consulates and VDS face in promoting breast cancer awareness. Fortunately, the project also gave me the opportunity to provide feedback that reflected the need for this Toolkit to be culturally sensitive and bilingual for both the Hispanic community and their educators.

The Toolkit was developed by Komen as a way to provide educators ways to integrate breast cancer education into new or existing breast cancer educational programs. It provides culturally-specific communication resources, videos, practical tools and materials designed for use by experienced educators as well as new educators working in the Hispanic/Latino community. These materials and resources make it easy to share information with a Hispanic audience.

The first time the VDS coordinator and I planned an educational event using Komen’s Toolkit, it was easier for us to identify the results we wanted to achieve, and to tailor our talking points to the needs of our community. We wanted to engage our audience – emphasizing the importance of breast cancer education, encouraging them to know what is normal for themand to visit a health care provider regularly. The Toolkit provides us with important information and numerous resources that help us plan our contents to the particular needs of each event.

The Toolkit has also helped us build a closer relationship with our community. The tips it includes to approach our audience create an inviting atmosphere to share sensitive information. For example, two women came into the Consulate for services and while they were waiting, they listened to the breast self-awareness PowerPoint presentation. These two women felt confident to approach the VDS promotora. They shared their concerns privately, and were both referred to a partner organization to be screened (although, thankfully, neither woman was diagnosed with breast cancer).

I am really thankful to Komen and its partner organizations for all the hard work they put into creating this Toolkit. It has been a very useful tool to all the VDS personnel, and we will continue to use it in our outreach to Hispanic/Latina women across the U.S.