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News Release For Immediate

December 6, 2010 Release
Contact:
Laurie Kassman/DC
202 266 9724

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS PROGRAMS EXPAND IN JORDAN

In partnership with the Jordan Breast Cancer Program, ANERA (American Near East
Refugee Aid) is launching a 10-month breast cancer awareness program in the underprivileged
community of Wehdat Refugee Camp, located southeast of Amman.

ANERA's partnership helps the Jordan Breast Cancer Program (JBCP) expand its services to
Palestinian women, with hopes that Wehdat will serve as a model to replicate in other refugee
camps across Jordan. The project will provide basic services for women there who have lived
with limited access to mammography and other services. In the first phase, ANERA's
outreach program will educate some 7,200 women to perceive breast cancer as risk to their
health and to educate them how to perform regular self breast examinations

Breast cancer poses a healthcare challenge in Jordan primarily because of the lack of
awareness on the importance of early detection. Health officials estimate that 70% of cases
are detected at advanced stages when survival rates are much lower and the cost of treatment
much higher.

A key component of this program is the home visit: ANERA is working in cooperation with
JBCP and the Jordan Women Union and community workers trained in outreach for
interpersonal awareness raising and training on self breast examination through home visits.
Experience has shown that effective behavioral change benefits from a one-on-one approach.

The outreach workers also will refer 500 women to have free-of-charge mammograms at
Al-Hilal Hospital in Eastern Amman, followed by some 250 recall mammograms and biopsy
services for those in need. To measure the program's impact , 7,200 women will fill baseline
questionnaires in January to April, which will then be compared to the post-program
information collected from some 600 women in June 2011.

"We believe this personal approach will encourage the women of Wehdat to change their
attitudes about the disease, and use the skills we teach them to perform a self breast
examination every month, "says Hanan Shasha, ANERA's Country Director in Jordan. "This
will help them gain familiarity with their composition and normal feel, making it easier to
immediately identify and report any changes since treatment of cancer can be most effective
in the early stages." The program also will provide practical advice about where, how, and
when to go for further screening.

ABOUT JBCP:
The Jordan Breast Cancer Program (JBCP) was established in 2007 by the Ministry of Health
as a National Program Health, led by the King Hussein Cancer Foundation and Center.
JBCP's mission is to reduce morbidity and mortality from breast cancer and shift the current
state of diagnosis from its late stages (III-IV) to its earliest stages (0-II), where survival rates
are high and treatment costs low. JBCP works across all sectors and relevant stakeholders to
ensure that all efforts are unified in direction and maximizing its impact on a national level.

ABOUT ANERA:
For more than 40 years, ANERA has been a leading provider of development, health,
education and employment programs to Palestinian communities and impoverished families
throughout the Middle East. In FY 2009, the relief and development agency delivered more
than $50 million of programs to the people of the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Jordan

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