Comadre a Comadre
Our Mission
The Comadre a Comadre program’s mission is to empower the lives of Hispanic/Latina women and their loved ones through advocacy, education, information, resources, and support about breast health and breast cancer.
The word “Comadre”
The word “Comadre” is a term used to describe the non-biological close female kinship that exist in the Hispanic/Latino extended family unit.
Description of the Program
The Comadre a Comadre Model is an innovative approach to peer support and patient navigation since it relies on ethnically and racially diverse breast cancer survivors who have been traditionally an underutilized resource for their community. Cancer survivors provide a wealth of personal insight, knowledge, expertise and spiritual intuitive awareness that is essential to integrate into proposed expansion and further development of services. Breast cancer survivors bring a lifelong passion and ability to motivate and inspire others to adapt and survive from a traumatic illness.
The Comadre a Comadre program is a culturally and linguistically competent one-on-one peer psychosocial support intervention designed to improve breast cancer outcomes among Hispanic/Latina women newly diagnosed with breast cancer.
Implemented as a community-based program in 2005, the Comadre a Comadre program was co-founded with the input and participation of six Hispanic/Latina breast cancer survivors, and their loved ones, who shared their experiences about both the lack of culturally sensitive psychosocial support available to them and their own lack of knowledge of services when they were diagnosed. Survivors bring a lifelong passion and ability to motivate and inspire others to adapt and survive from a traumatic illness. This positive role modeling is critical, and not only are the Comadres survivors but also representative of the Hispanic/Latino culture of the women being reached.
The Comadre a Comadre program is a holistic program that embodies strong Hispanic/Latino cultural coping practices, such as prayer and family support to address the many practical challenges faced by cancer patients. The Program’s staff and volunteers are bilingual and Hispanic/Latino.
Awards
Congratulations to Comadre a Comadre’s Elba Saavedra, Director, Program Peer Mentors- Susan Serna Alexander, Priscilla Cabrera, Rosario Gonzales, Catherine Landavazo, Esther Leyba, Juanita Lovato, Dalila Romero, Flora Velasquez, and Community Resource Navigator, Michaela Granados!
Together, they represented three of seven community members and teams honored at the 17th Annual People’s Caring Awards hosted by People Living Through Cancer at the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town recently. To read more about their honored achivements, please click here