on saturday, june 23, 6:30-9:30 pm

location: tbd

tickets info will be available soon…

ANNOUNCEMENT from Adhunika’s coalition partner DREAM Project:

October 31, 2011

Are you or someone you know interested in learning about how to control and manage diabetes?  If so, you may be eligible to participate in the DREAM Project, a community health worker program designed to help diabetic Bangladeshis of New York City learn more about healthy eating, physical activity, coping with diabetes, and much more!

The program is completely free and open to patients of Bellevue Hospital (New York, NY). Long Island City Health Center (Queens, NY) or Morris Heights Health Center (Bronx, NY).

If you are interested, please contact one of DREAM Projects Community Health Workers today. Recruitment for this project will end on November 30, 2011, Thanks!

Gulnahar Alam : (212) 263-5054, (646) 483-4110

MD Taher: (212) 263-7566, (646) 341-2135

Mamnunul Haq: (212) 263-5336, (646) 483-6100

For detail information, please visit: http://asian-health.med.nyu.edu/dream/

In passing through the entrance, I heard the murmurs of female voices and continued to walk until I had a visual sight.  My eyes laid upon a handful of women, all smiling as they were talking to each other.  Their presence in the room filled the air with a sense of purpose and I felt humbled to be amongst them.  I saw Shahnaz Yousuf – Founder of Adhunika and embraced her, she then introduced me to our coalition members of Shakti Peer Group as well as others that were present for the workshop.  I was relieved to see another common face in the room, also a dedicated volunteer of Adhunika, Baby Aziz.  But I was dismayed that only a handful of people came to attend the workshop.

The seating arrangements were formed with chairs to form a semi-circle in the middle of a room and I seated myself by the window.  The members of Shakti Peer Group looked to be in their 30s-40s coming from very diverse backgrounds but spoke English and Bangali quite fluently.  After we all sat down, Mahbooba Akhtar Kabita facilitator & member of Shakti Peer Group opened up the workshop by introducing the topic of Domestic Violence. Each of us picked a small phrase out of a random pile and was told to find our partner that had the other half of the phrase.  After we identified our partner, we realized that the two halves completed a sentence of a Bangladeshi proverb.

Though I can read Bangali language, interpreting the words of a proverb was beyond my skill set.  I asked my partner, Afreen Alam the Deputy Director of Chhaya CDC for interpretation of the proverb.  She smiled and uttered the English translation which meant, “Patience Yields Results.”  We were then asked to find out some basic background information of our partners and to also discuss what the proverb meant to each one of us.  The floor was then opened to the bigger group to discuss the proverb each team had.  As each team discussed their chosen proverb, a theme started to form and I realized that these proverbs were distinctly selected because of the underlying negative influence it has on women culturally.

Once the ice breaker session was completed, Kobita apa dived deeper into the topic.  She discussed in detail the factors (external/internal) that contributed to domestic violence.  She spoke and interacted with the audience from defining the situation to challenges of guiding potential victims through the process.  Each of us contributed to the discussion, it was interesting to hear how each of us perceived DV in a different way.  In the middle of the discussion, I learned that a member of Shakti Peer Group was a survivor and she spoke so candidly about her past experience that I was taken back by the confidence in her voice.  There was a general consensus that for Bangladeshi women the underlying root cause of DV is that it is accepted in our society.  Due to the time constraint, the two hour discussion had to come to an end. By now I had more questions than answers in my mind.  I didn’t expect to solve a social issue within a few hours, but I struggled to identify what the starting point should be.  We bid farewell to our partners and the members of Adhunika, including Shahnaz, decided to head over to a local eatery in Jackson Heights where we picked up the conversation once more.

Over dinner we discussed what the best approach may be for our organization to tackle this.  A key concern was how to obtain space to conduct these workshops regularly. We want people who attend the workshops to not feel threatened by the environment, to ensure confidentiality until if and when they are ready to leave the situation. People who attend should not fear judgment or feel threatened.  We are here to listen to your stories, to provide you with resources in case a time comes where you may need it. The three of us pondered in silence as we finished eating our food.  As Kabita apa drew on the white board, it is like a monster with many heads and cutting one off will only create more.  Hopefully by our next workshop early January you will feel comfortable to join the conversation for us have more guidance in reaching our goal.

~ Laila Latif, from New York

I was a bit emotional when the date for launching of the Breast Cancer Awareness event was fixed on October 22, as it marked my sister’s 4^th death anniversary. In 2007, on this day my sister Farhana Ahmed took her last breath peacefully, surrounded by all her family members, she was only 41 years old. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2005, I still remember her expression – she was so quiet. Probably talking to herself, why God, why me? She prepared herself to visit several doctors, went through several chemotherapies and radiation therapies, during the ordeal lost hair, became skinny but at last got cured. She was at T3 stage. Within two months she started coughing and her coughing went on.  The specialists said, she also developed lung cancer.  The cancer captured her lungs, living no room for oxygen. After three months battle with lung cancer, she passed away.

Early detection of Breast Cancer could have saved her life, as she was not aware of breast cancer, never had imagined in her life that she could be a victim of breast cancer. That mindset still I find in my friends, colleagues and other women around me. They cannot believe that they can ever be victim of the Breast Cancer. Some may assume that awareness about the means of early detection for Breast Cancer has spread enough among women in our nation, but they often forget that there is a number of Bangladeshi women who are marginalized due to the poverty they live in, who lack health education in various fields.

The month I joined Adhunika Bangladesh Society (ABS), Dr. Muna Salima Jahan came to ABS for an in house awareness building seminar for the participants of Access to Health Education & Services, where she talked in detail about Breast Cancer. Dr. Muna made all the participants including myself very comfortable to have a lively discussion on a topic that we don’t get a chance to talk about.  As I was also preparing for the upcoming campaign against breast cancer initiated by Adhunika Foundation & Sajida Foundation To me the seminar was a first step for our participants to be prepared for the campaign against breast cancer.

The month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and from this month the partnership between Adhunika Foundation and Sajida Foundation will be working on several strategies to help bring awareness to this disease that affects 1 in every 8 women.

Adhunika Foundation and Sajida Foundation have developed partnership to support the women in fighting against Breast Cancer. The motto of this partnership is: Together we are stronger, together we can achieve more, and together we can create more awareness. This partnership launched an Awareness Campaign, emphasizing the power of togetherness with one voice to share the important message of breast health and that early detection saves lives. A great part of this campaign’s efforts was to focus on reaching out to the women who live under poor condition. These women do not get a chance to get enough information about Breast Cancer. Many women in Bangladesh are not aware of Breast Cancer, are shy to talk about it, never seek treatment, or arrive at hospitals with late-stage cancer, which is often untreatable.

At the launching event Dr. Rumana Dowla, a palliative care specialist was invited, and as the key note speaker she described several issues related to breast health. She gave emphasis on Breast Self-Examination. She suggested the women in their twenties should begin breast self-exam on a monthly basis as this is the best way to find out the risk factor.  She gave an audio-visual presentation of the Breast Self-Examination process. She also suggested the women over 40 should get a mammogram every year and keep doing so for as long as they are in good health.

This campaign was also promoted through educational leaflets and an audio-visual presentation on Breast health care program: A Choice: Amader Gram Breast Care Program, jointly prepared by IBCRF (International Breast Cancer Research Foundation) and Amader Gram.

I feel humbled to be a part of the journey with this partnership which provided me the opportunity to lead the way for the girls involved with Adhunika Bangladesh Society. I thank all the participants, Program Officer Swapna Sarkar & staff at ABS for being so cooperative. Not to mention the support of the ABS ‘s board members. And it is encouraging to receive support and valuable advice I received from Sajida Foundation (SF), specially from Executive Director Ms. Zahida F. Kabir & Dr. Sabur of SF who guide me throughout the process. And without the tireless support from Adhunika Foundation – don’t think this would have taken a shape. Slowly I am feeling the strength of Friends of Adhunika who wish to bring about change social change in the lives of women through the use of technology.

I, as a sibling of a Breast Cancer fighter, am looking forward to the increased unity of this partnership. Let this partnership work by heart to be closer to the goal: Making breast cancer a thing of the past – TOGETHER WE CONQUER!

~

Tasmeena Ahmed, from Dhaka, Bangladesh

Tasmeena Ahmed  is the Acting Executive Director of Adhunika Bangladesh Society

Which of the following statements are true?:

1. One in every three women in the world has experienced sexual, physical, emotional or other abuse in her lifetime
2. Domestic violence is primarily a crime against women. In 2003 in the United States, women accounted for 85% of the victims of intimate partner violence and men accounted for approximately 15%
3. Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate partner
4. Domestic violence includes physical, emotional, financial, sexual and spiritual abuse
5. Domestic violence can occur in relationships regardless of sexual orientation, age, economic and educational status.

If you answered “All”, you are correct.  Yes, the statistics are chilling.  Violence against women is a global phenomenon transcending race, class, gender, sexual orientation and education status.  It occurs within all communities, and we South Asians are not immune to it, despite the silence and shame that many of us suffer due to cultural and social stigma.

We are lucky that within the past 25 years there have been many organizations around the U.S that have arisen to assist survivors of domestic violence in the South Asian community.  Organizations such as Sakhi for South Asian Women in New York, Manavi in New Jersey, Raksha in Atlanta and many others have excellent programs to support women and their families who are in need of shelter, legal advice, immigration advice, and emotional support.  These organizations offer services to women and children in our communities in a culturally sensitive manner and create safe spaces for women to heal.

After graduating from college with a degree in Sociology and Women’s studies I was a volunteer at Manavi teaching ESL to women accessing their services, and landed my first job at Sakhi where I got to interact with survivors of violence at all stages: from doing intakes, helping them get referrals to services, and offering support at the monthly support group meetings.  I also got to interact with the other wonderful volunteers who would accompany women to their court appointments, help with translation for women, and help them re-enter the job market.

After several years of working in violence against women organizations in immigrant communities, I realized that there was a gap in terms of the way that services were being offered in our communities.  There is definitely a need for organizations to offer services to those in immediate need.  However, in order to bring about a change in our communities, it is also important to reach out to those who are ‘lay’ community members; our khalas and our pishis and our mamas and our brothers to acknowledge that violence does exist in our families and our communities, and that as a community we need to come up with collective solutions to violence against women and children.  I also realized that there is not just ‘one’ response to violence against women in our communities, and it was an issue that needed to be discussed and addressed on an ongoing basis and not just in situations when women were in immediate danger.

In 2007, I trained a group of 9 South Asian women in New York City to become peer educators on violence against women through a program at CONNECT’s Community Empowerment Program.  These women ranged in ages from their early 20’s to their late 50’s, they were all immigrant women, and many worked as domestic workers, teachers, translators and home-makers.  There were women in the group who were themselves survivors of domestic violence.  This group went through an intensive 40 hour, culturally specific training on violence against women in South Asian communities, and the tools to go and outreach about it in their own particular communities as ‘peer educators’.  The peer educators ended up collectively performing over 300 hours of outreach within a 2 month period to neighborhoods in New York City in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx to mosques, businesses, schools, and community events.

Since most of the peers spoke Bengali, they mainly outreached to the areas inhabited by large Bangladeshi populations such as Jamaica Queens, Parkchester in the Bronx, Jackson Heights and more.  The outreach and education strategies employed by the peer educators was not just directed towards women, but also to engage men as allies in the movement to end violence against women.

Through this process, the change in the peer educators themselves was remarkable.  For some of the women, it was the first time that they took the subways by themselves, for others the group was a sources of support, and they all grew in self-confidence and in their commitment to end violence in our communities.

In 2008 we formed the Shakti Peer Group, whose goal is to to end violence against women through training, education and outreach. Since our inception our original group of peer educators have trained 20 other women to become peer educators on domestic violence in our community.  The Shakti Peer Group has conducted multiple trainings and outreached to over one thousand community members using creative methods such as small group sessions over chai and samosas, speaking to community members in public spaces, and holding informative workshops on domestic violence, gender roles and provided culturally specific resources for women in need.  Our members have spoken at various local and national conferences on our unique strategy to combat violence against women through a peer education approach.

We are very excited to be invited again by Adhunika to do a workshop on October 22, 2011 from 4pm-6pm at 37-43 77^th St. 2^nd floor, Jackson Heights, NY 111372 (Chhaya CDC Office). Shakti Peer Group members Mahmbooba Akhtar Kabita and Sharmin A. Quraishi will be conducting the workshop. We look forward to working together to make our families and communities a safe space for all, and finding a collective solution to end violence against women.

~ Krittika Ghosh

For more information on the Shakti Peer Group please email at shaktipeers@gmail.com

Krittika Ghosh is the co-founder of the Shakti Peer Group.  Ms. Ghosh has a long history of working for social justice causes in the immigrant communities in New York City including domestic violence, workers rights, immigration and public health.  Ms. Ghosh is currently based in Toronto where she is working on microcredit and health education for women in developing countries.  Ms. Ghosh holds a MSc in Gender Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

ADHUNIKA FOUNDATION PRESENTS

An interactive Workshop on Ending Violence Against Women Through Community Engagement Strategies

Facilitated by: Shakti Peer Group

Come find out about innovative strategies to overcome violence in the South Asian communities, and find out about how you can help in the movement to end domestic violence!

WHEN: Saturday, October 22, 2011

TIME: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

WHERE: Chhaya CDC Auditorium

37-43 77th St. 2nd Floor

Jackson Heights, NY 11372

RSVP by Oct 20 at events@adhunika.org

Limited Seats Available.

Light Refreshment Will be Served!

>>>

IN BANGLADESH: Fighting Breast Cancer -Adhunika Bangladesh Society with the support from Adhunika Foundation partners with Sajida Foundation to launch Breast Cancer Awareness program at 10:00 am at SAJIDA Hospital, Chatgaon, Keraniganj ,  a 100 bed facility hospital.

I agreed to write about my experience with cancer for Adhunika’s blog because I wanted to do the right thing. Then I had serious second thoughts. I feel like mine is not a story to tell. It was not much of a ‘battle’. My experience has been nowhere near as painful or as heart-wrenching as that of others. It has not shaken me to my senses, to shed the 25 lbs that I need to lose for example.  I feel like these are the minimum elements that merit an entry into a blog about people “battling with cancer”. On the other hand, to the extent that it represents the more benign end of a wide spectrum of disease etiology, progression and prognosis, I guess it has a place. When I was first diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) my doctor friend told me “if you must have cancer, this is the one to have”.  I do not intend to make light of my experience, and I certainly don’t want to do the same of the experience of others, but here goes.

In a nutshell, my cancer has been pretty painless so far. I was diagnosed after a routine mammogram in August 2010 detected suspicious calcification, later confirmed to be malignant through needle biopsy. A diagnosis of DCIS is given when a biopsy shows the presence of malignant cells but the cells are contained within the ducts and have not escaped. As I understand it, the vast majority of breast cancers originate in the duct. Cancers are also classified into stages (0 to 4) of progression and sometimes grade based on the pathology reports– in my case none of my doctors seemed to pay much attention to the grade and mine was stage 0.  I was recommended the standard treatment for early stage breast cancer—surgery to remove the offending breast tissue followed by six weeks of radiation treatment five days a week. I have chosen to go on Tamoxifen following surgery and radiation. This is a preventive drug that interferes with the production of estrogen, a hormone that promotes cancerous growth of breast tissue, and is usually recommended for more advanced cancer. I debated ad infinitum about this decision, with myself and with my radiologist and my surgeon. I am still not sure it was the right decision. I have been on it for about six months and have experienced known side effects such as regular hot flashes.

I had to have two surgical procedures, both as day surgery. Once the surgeon removes the cancerous growth, a portion of the tissue on the margins of the cancerous area is sent for testing.  The surgeon did not get clear margins the first time around so she did another similar procedure about three weeks later. Perhaps the most painful part of the whole thing is needle localization done while your breast is in compression in a mammogram machine. It is done by a radiologist just prior to surgery (and without the benefit of anesthesia) to insert wires and pins to mark the area of malignancy. Although the surgery was done under partial anesthesia with sedation, I was completely out for the two hours or so of the procedure. They prescribed narcotic pain-killers (Vicodin) but I did not need to take more than one or two.  My radiation treatment began in January and ran through many snowstorms to the middle of March. The hospital is about a mile away from where I work and I scheduled treatments during the middle of the day. I was usually gone from work for a little over an hour each day.  Many people complain of exhaustion and some skin discomfort—the point of radiation is that they are trying to burn any cancer tissue that may have escaped the surgery. In the process there may be some second degree burns to the skin.

Of course, this whole process is something of an emotional roller coaster. I struggled about how to tell my daughters, then ages 11 and 4. I tried to keep it from my mother until I had a good handle on it myself. She found out anyway by reading my unguarded emails to my sister and was amazingly stoic. I admit I had a few meltdowns, though, thankfully, not in front of my children. I sought the help of a social worker from Memorial Sloan Kettering who gave me an hour of very useful advice on the phone one morning. After that I was able to talk to my daughters truthfully and optimistically, without inducing trauma or much drama. Children are very resilient and my daughters seemed to ride out the experience reasonably well. I found that it was oddly reassuring for them to hear about my various procedures in excruciating detail. I chose not to bring them to the hospital because that can be overwhelming. At an early phase of my diagnosis, I decided to inform a rather wide circle of friends and colleagues anticipating that I may be out of commission for some time. In hindsight I am slightly embarrassed and believe I need not have reached out quite so wide. Of course, at the time I expected to be put out much more by the surgery and the treatment than ended up being the case.

I have been blessed by a very supportive circle of family and friends. My sister traveled from Bangladesh twice to be with me during the surgeries and radiation. By brother, sister-in-law, cousins and friends kept up a constant stream of phone calls and visits. My children and my household could not have done without our very dependable care-giver. I received excellent care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and have been very fortunate that we have good health care coverage.

In retrospect I would say that the time of receiving the first diagnosis was perhaps the most harrowing. I had a week or so when I was both emotionally distraught and not getting much medical guidance on who to go to and what to do. The radiologist who gave me the initial diagnosis suddenly got really busy and could not schedule me for a needle biopsy that he himself recommended. My decision at that time to switch hospitals and go to Sloan Kettering was the best decision I made. It turns out I could not have chosen a better team.

I have several friends who have been through diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Each of us has dealt with it very differently. Some have radically changed their diets. Others have gone on intensive physical regimens. One friend started a group called “kick cancer’s butt”. Another formed a group of survivors who call themselves “can-can girls”.  Yet others have sought spiritual recourse and yoga. Each of us has to find our own path. My own comfort level has been to say that I would not make radical changes and that I will not let cancer run my life. I will admit I have gone organic. Now to go and lose that weight!

Sajeda A.

October 5, 2011

I am having Chemotherapy again.   It recurred from my right breast.    It would be incorrect to call it ‘breast’, it would probably be more appropriate to call it chest as my right breast was mastectomized   on 3 October, 2009.  This time it started in March of this year.  I started feeling a fair bit of pain in my right chest.  So I went to Dr. Lt. Col.  Mofazzel Hossain, an Oncologist for a check up.   He told me that I had received radio-therapy in that location for 25 days after my surgery, so it might very well be a little painful there and I should just accept it as a normal side effect.    I swallowed the pain and carried on with my normal activities.

In May, I noticed a rash on my skin to the left of the incision mark made by the operation.   This time I went to my Surgeon, Dr Khademul  Islam.   He asked me to get an X-ray done.  I got it done and the result was good.  Once again I tried to take it in my stride.   But my mind was not at rest.  So I went to see Dr Akhter Shahida Perveen, the Head of the Department of Medicine at Mohakhali Cancer Hospital.   She examined me and asked me to get an ultra-sound done.    Again the report was good.   She prescribed some vitamins and pain killers.   I went on the regime prescribed for me.   But I could find no change.    So I headed back to Dr Akhter Shahida Perveen.   She asked me to get a blood test and a CT scan of my chest done.  The result of the blood test was good, but the result of the scan was not.  This time I was told that I had had a recurrence and I needed to start chemotherapy.   After I left the consulting chamber, I rang Polash (my husband) and told him that I had had a recurrence, and then I cried for a while thinking about my little child.   Polash told me to go to Lt. Col. Mofazzal Hossain at Lab Aid and he joined me there from his office.   The doctor looked at everything and asked me to have an abdominal CT scan done.  I got it done at United Hospital.  He said there were innumerable signs of a recurrence, and I should start chemotherapy.   On being asked how many sessions of chemotherapy would be required, he said it wasn’t possible to say that yet, and it would depend on the condition of the patient.  When Polash said we wanted to go to India, the doctor wrote down the name of a number of chemotherapies and said that is what I would be given in India too.

Anyway, it would take us at least another seven days to get to India.  I thought my condition might deteriorate if I left it until then and agreed to start my chemo.  That night I took a Gemsitabine intravenously and went on a fourteen day course of Gelato.   After that we went to see Dr Shankar Shrinivasan at Chennai Apollo Cancer Hospital.  He told us to get another CT scan, a biopsy, and some more blood tests done.   The report from the CT scan showed clear signs of the recurrence.   The result of the biopsy was quite painful to take – it was exactly the opposite of what I had got from the one performed in 2009 after my surgery.  Then my ER was positive, PR was also positive and HR2 was negative.   This time ER was negative, so was PR, and HR2 was positive.  The doctor drew up a plan for chemotherapy.  He said I would have to be given nine Herceptins and twelve Gemcitabines.  And then I would have a follow-up.  After that I would have to have Herceptin oral chemotherapy for a good number of days along with another chemotherapy.

I have completed three Herceptins and six Gemcitabines, or three cycles of chemotherapy.   A number of tests will have to be carried out before the fourth cycle can begin.   So I am making preparations to go to India again.  I am not feeling very well.  I don’t know what is in store for me in the days ahead, but then no one does.   I don’t know whether I will be able to give some more time to my daughter.  But I wish so much that I could.   My four year old daughter’s name is Ana Nina Rahman.  She is a very affectionate and sensitive child.   There are times when I think if I could only be with her until her puberty!   Then I could have given her my support as a mother with the matter of her adjusting to the wider world.  I don’t at all feel like leaving my daughter in sadness.  But we all have to bow down to hard reality.  I ardently wish that she will become a human being in the true sense of the word – that she will work for her fellow human beings, help them, fight for them and be brave and self-reliant.

Original Article written in Bangla By Nahid Jahan Lina

English translation by Nuzhat Safa