Ify Anne Nwabukwu wants immigrant women in the Washington, DC, area to know that help is just around the corner.
By Lambeth Hochwald Medically Reviewed by Ryland J. Gore, MD, MPH
Reviewed: August 24, 2022
Ify Anne Nwabukwu (right) receiving the Jack E. White Founder Award in October 2014 from Carla D. Williams, PhD, associate professor of medicine and public health and interim director of the Howard University Cancer Center in Washington, DC.
Ify Anne Nwabukwu, a trained nurse, has been working toward a single goal for the past 17 years: ensuring that African immigrants in the Washington, DC, area receive the necessary cancer treatment.
The purpose is personal for Nwabukwu, 70, the founder and executive director of the African Women's Cancer Awareness Association (AWCAA). In 1989, when her diabetic mother visited from Nigeria, Nwabukwu took her to an endocrinologist.
The doctor examined her mother from head to toe during that visit, finding a lump in her mother's breast. Her mother was uninsured at the time and had no idea how to use the American healthcare system.
The tumor was visible to her mother as well, but she was unaware of its potential threat. Although her youngest daughter was in her twenties at the time, she told the doctor that she believed it was caused by breastfeeding when he asked how long it had been there.
The events that followed would alter Nwabukwu's life. She asked a friend (who also happened to be a trauma surgeon) for assistance because she didn't have insurance to cover her mother's surgery. After that, that friend organized additional coworkers, who ultimately operated on her mother.
Nwabukwu claims, "They performed the radical mastectomy without charge." But then I began to consider all the other immigrant women who experience similar things but lack a rescuer.
Nwabukwu, a mother of four grown children, made the decision to handle it alone in 2004. She founded the AWCAA, a neighborhood-based group, with financial assistance from Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The objective is to assist her clients—many of whom lack health insurance—in gaining access to preventative healthcare procedures like screening mammography.
Additionally, the team, who are all African immigrants, assists patients in navigating the complex world of cancer, which includes MRIs, surgeries, and treatment regimens. Additionally, her team regularly engages in community outreach with the aim of ensuring that up to 60 local women schedule yearly mammograms.
Throughout 3,000 women in the DC region and all over Africa have received assistance from the organization during mission trips. A translator who speaks one of the 11 African languages, including Hausa, Swahili, and Shona, is always on duty. These linguistic limitations may also restrict care.
When her mother's cancer spread to her liver and she passed away in 2007, Nwabukwu says, "I attempted to transform my suffering into a purpose."
Women were dying in her town, but the saddest part was that no one brought it up, she says. At a funeral, you can overhear rumors that a woman had breast cancer, but in my neighborhood, nobody wants to advertise their services.
In fact, her sisters requested she keep her death's cause a secret when she traveled to Nigeria for her mother's funeral.
She claims that they forbade her from telling anyone that she had breast cancer. "In my culture, this continues to be a tremendous struggle."
In the end, she vowed to go public after learning she had breast cancer in 2016.
She explains, "I wanted to let the world know." "The most important lesson I also learnt is that we never pass on our family's medical history. Both my mom and my aunt had breast cancer, but only my mom's was diagnosed when she was here with me.
She has started working with Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Howard University Hospital to offer genetic testing and encourage women to enroll in research trials as a result of this.
The organization is also able to provide quarterly mammograms in a mobile van parked in front of the organization's office, mental health counseling, support groups, as well as assistance with mastectomy bra and prosthesis fittings thanks to ongoing funding from the Washington, DC, and Maryland's Departments of Health as well as from private corporations and individuals.
Even when Nwabukwu gets ready to launch another charity office, this one in Atlanta, the difficulties persist.
It’s not, for instance, all about money.
The resources are available, but most of these women won't have a social security number, which is required in order for them to receive therapy, she claims. The fact that many of our customers are living with family and will not have their names on the utility lease is another concern. There are residency criteria for care. When we ask kids to fill out forms, this is a problem.
And of course, if they are undocumented and reveal any information about where they reside, they will fear being deported.
Healthcare institutions have nothing to do with immigration, we remind our clients, she adds. They worry that if they share information with us, immigration will find out about it.
Nwabukwu's dedication to giving her clients the resources they require to make wise health decisions keeps her motivated. Nwabukwu strongly advises her patients to undergo mammograms so that any abnormal findings or signs of breast cancer can be identified and treated quickly.
She explains, "I want to make sure that nobody journeys through this road alone. There are many women who are soldiers nowadays. We must support our female counterparts. Breast cancer doesn't care who it affects. We all experience the same emotions and wish to support one another.
Her greatest sense of fulfillment comes from seeing a customer again after witnessing what could have been a sad conclusion come to a beautiful one.
One of the finest compliments anyone can pay me, she says, "is to know they identified their cancer when they used one of our programs and that they got their treatment and lived."
Resources We Love
The American Cancer Society is dedicated to helping people who face cancer, including free rides to chemo, places to stay when treatment is far from home and a live 24/7 helpline.
Breast Care For Washington is committed to reducing breast cancer mortality in the Washington, DC, area by promoting access to breast cancer screening.
The Howard University Cancer Centerprovides research, education, and service for cancers that affect primarily Black American populations.
Tigerlily Foundation is a national breast cancer foundation providing education, awareness, advocacy, and hands-on support to young women.
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center is the research engine driving clinical cancer research at MedStar Health in the DC Metro area and northern New Jersey.
The George Washington Cancer Center in Washington, DC, provides services for detection, diagnosis, and treatment of a variety of cancers as well as support programs and rehabilitation.
0 Comments