25 Jan HERStory: Chien-Chi Huang
This month we’re continuing to highlight women in the community who embody and spread the power of positivity! Meet Chien-Chi Huang, founder of the Asian Breast Cancer Project and the Executive Director of Asian Women for Health (AWFH), who shares with us the inspiring work she does to empower and spread positivity in her community.
“I’m an immigrant from Taiwan. I’m the only girl in my family. My father was a doctor, and I grew up on a military compound because my father taught medicine at a medical school in Taiwan,” says Huang. “I grew up with boys, and there were very few girls in my neighborhood, which caused me to always long to have a sense of community among women.”
Chien-Chi founded the Asian Breast Cancer Project in 2010 after having her own battle with cancer. “I was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2005. I was only 40 years old, and it was a shock because a few months before my diagnosis, I scheduled my first mammogram, and there was no tumor detected, but a few months later, I felt a lump,” Huang says. “I learned that Asian women and younger women tend to have dense breast tissue, so the regular mammograms sometimes can’t detect the tumor.”
While undergoing her cancer treatment, she found herself frequently being the only Asian person in the room, longing to have someone who looked like her; however, she couldn’t find this representation. After experiencing cultural and linguistic barriers in her cancer journey, she decided to take the initiative.
“In 2010, I started the Asian Breast Cancer Project to train other Asian women to deliver breast health education and mentoring; two years later, we became Asian Women For Health.”
AWFH promotes women’s mental and physical health and uses a three-pronged strategy to forge a powerful partnership between Asian women, healthcare providers, and the community.
Through her work, Chien-Chi makes a significant impact and spreads positivity to the community. She shares, “We started the Asian American Mental Health forum, and this will be the 14th year we’re doing this conference, and volunteers run it entirely.”
She sees the power of positivity in her organization, “Many of the women who go through our program decided to pay it forward, reciprocate and give back to the community,” she continues.
Countless women share their stories of how they have been impacted by this organization. They see firsthand how women have grown in their knowledge and capacity for resilience and self-care. An AWFH volunteer, Apriani, shares on Great Nonprofits, “I’m honored to be able to volunteer in one of AWFH’s conferences. The organization does magnificent work empowering women to be champions for their health. What Chien Chi and the other women do at this organization are truly inspiring.”
Thank you, Chien-Chi Huang, for sharing your story with us and spreading the power of positivity!
To learn more and get involved with Asian Women for Health, visit their website HERE: https://www.asianwomenforhealth.org/.
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