Breast cancer rates in Lebanon are increasing, especially among younger women. Hiba Yazbeck decided she wanted to do something about it.
When LAU alumna Hiba Yazbeck (LAU ’97) was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 38, she was surprised—she had no history of the disease in her family. She did some research, and discovered that breast cancer rates were rapidly increasing in Lebanon.
Hiba’s prognosis was good—Breast cancer is 98% treatable when discovered early. But she knew that cultural taboos sometimes kept Lebanese women from discussing cancer, preventing them from getting the kind of treatment that was critical for their survival.
Hiba found herself at a crossroads: “I decided I wanted to do something positive out of what I was going through.” She created Courage to Fight Breast Cancer or C2.
She teamed up with Dr. Myrna Doumit, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at LAU’s Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing (ARCSON). In fall 2016, with Hiba’s generous support and ARCSON’s backing, Dr. Doumit started going into rural communities in Lebanon to teach women about breast self-exams and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment.
What can we do?
We want to raise $10,000 during the month of October to continue and expand this innovative program in 2018. This will allow Dr. Doumit and her team to train 150 health care workers who can lead C2 awareness raising workshops across Lebanon. We believe that by giving women the information they need, we can help save lives.
We know that you or someone you love may also have faced breast cancer. We want to help more women in Lebanon get the chance to fight and win.
GiveCampus is the easiest way to give to C2! But if you prefer to send a check, it can be made out to Lebanese American University and sent here:
Lebanese American University
New York Headquarters and Academic Center
211 E 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
Thank you for helping us save lives in Lebanon with C2!
We'll write with more updates soon, but in the meantime we just wanted to say thank you. We've met our stretch goal with a grand total of $25,245, all of which will go directly to Year 2 of our Courage to Fight Breast Cancer program.
We're in the last 12 hours of our crowdfunding campaign! Every dollar gets us closer to covering the actual costs of the program. Please donate and share if you are able.
2230 days ago by Erika Iverson
There's just a few hours left to give! Please share Hiba's inspiring story with a friend and help us make our $25,000 goal!
There's just one more day to contribute to our Courage to Fight Breast Cancer campaign! Your gift will help us lead C2 workshops in communities all over Lebanon. Here, C2 workshop participant Caroline Matta Zeillaa took the time to tell us why the work Courage to Fight Breast Cancer does is so important.
To aid our crowdfunding efforts, Hiba and Chady made a remarkable offer: if we could reach $10,000 in donations, they would match that amount for Year 2 of the Courage to Fight Breast Cancer program. We met that goal, and now we’re trying to top it: can you help us get all the way to $25,000?
If you are able, please make a donation or share this message with a friend! Every dollar gets us closer to covering the actual costs of the program.
Thanks once again Hiba and Chady! Your generosity and personal commitment inspire us to do even more!
We’ve met our goal!
But that doesn’t mean we’re done. We’ve set a stretch goal of $25,000—and you can help us get there!
On October 1, we launched a campaign to raise $10,000 to expand the Courage to Fight Breast Cancer program. On October 23, we announced that C2 founder Hiba Yazbeck had pledged an additional $10,000 if we met our initial goal.
Today, we’re hoping you can get us all the way to $25,000.
When Hiba Yazbeck approached Dr. Myrna Doumit and LAU’s Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing (ARCSON) with her idea for C2, Dr. Doumit agreed to take on the project as a volunteer. A well-known scholar in the field of breast cancer research, Dr. Doumit knew how important awareness raising workshops could be for women in Lebanon. Now we're asking for your help to give C2 the foundation it needs to endure.
In Year 2, C2 workshops will continue to go into communities large and small all over Lebanon. Our “train-the-trainer” initiative will allow Dr. Doumit and her team to train 150 health care workers to be ongoing sources of support and information. And with your help, we can make sure that Dr. Doumit, our expert nurses, and health care professionals have the support they need to keep C2 going!
Help us reach our goal and sustain C2 long into the future! Every dollar gets us closer to covering the actual costs of the program. We truly can’t do this important work without you. If you've already donated, please share this with a friend or on your social media page!
In 2015, after her own cancer diagnosis, Hiba Yazbeck dreamed up Courage to Fight Breast Cancer. Please help us make Hiba’s dreams come true!
Courage to Fight Breast Cancer (C2) was created by LAU alumna Hiba Yazbeck after her own breast cancer diagnosis. LAU set a goal to raise $10,000 during the month of October to continue and expand the programs she first imagined-- and we’re almost there!
To help us reach our goal, Hiba and her husband Chady have announced a special challenge. If we can raise $10,000 by October 31, Hiba and Chady will donate an additional $10,000 to C2!
That’s $20,000 to (1) give women in Lebanon life-saving workshops AND (2) train community health care workers to be continued sources of information and support.
What can you do to help us?
Every drop in the bucket counts to make it to our goal!
Whether you’re able to give $10 or $1,000, you’ll help us meet our challenge. Visit our GiveCampus.com page for more information, and help us build momentum by sharing on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Use #Courage2Fight to connect with other donors!
Breast cancer is 98% treatable when caught early. But there is a silence surrounding breast cancer in Lebanon that can prevent women from getting the kind of early intervention critical for survival.
Dr. Myrna Doumit, Associate Professor at LAU’s Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing and the facilitator of the Courage to Fight Breast Cancer program, has written extensively about the way even the word “cancer” is taboo in Lebanon. “Breast cancer in particular is still considered in certain Lebanese cultures a prohibited word to mention because of its relationship to several important feminine aspects such as loss of the breast, guilt feelings, fear and uncertainty.”
"Women need to know about the importance of early detection," says Dr Nagi El Saghir, oncologist and director at Beirut's Breast Center of Excellence. “It can save their lives. In our culture, as in many Arab countries, cancer means death, but we are trying to tell women that it does not have to be that way. If a woman feels a lump in her breast, and she consults a doctor straight away, it's likely she will be cured … but people are afraid, and it's a huge reason why women are not coming forward sooner."
The Courage to Fight Breast Cancer program empowers women by teaching them how to properly conduct a self-examination and and where to find critical support if they do find a breast lump.
C2 reminds women that cancer can be treated. Rather than shame, silence, or denial, we want to give women the information they need to save their own lives.
2238 days ago by Erika Iverson
As you can see, we've traveled all over Lebanon giving C2 workshops in Year 1. Please help us share life-saving information with women in even more communities in Year 2! Plus, our "train-the-trainer" initiative will ensure that these communities have an ongoing source of information and support. Thank you so much for your donation!
Dr. Myrna Doumit speaks to a C2 workshop participant, October 12, 2017 Aïntoûra, Mont-Liban, Lebanon
We're so inspired by Dr. Myrna Doumit and her work with Courage to Fight Breast Cancer. She's traveled to remote locations all over Lebanon to give workshops in 10 different communities, and is preparing to do even more.
Over the next few days we'll share more photos from yesterday's C2 workshop, but in the meantime, can you help us by sharing our campaign on your social networks? If you have registered with GiveCampus, you can get a unique link to share and become an Advocate! Or, just share the link bit.ly/Courage2Fight and use #Courage2Fight on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!
Thank you so much for supporting Courage to Fight Breast Cancer!
The last Courage to Fight Breast Cancer workshop for 2017 is taking place today in Aïntoûra in Kesserwan, Lebanon. Watch Dr. Myrna Doumit from LAU’s Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing live as she explains the importance of early detection through proper self-examination to the participants.
Thanks for donating, and for sharing on your own Facebook and Twitter feeds! Use bit.ly/Courage2Fight or, if you've already donated, get a unique link from GiveCampus so you can see your impact!
2249 days ago by Erika IversonDr. Myrna Doumit from LAU’s Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing explains how to do a proper breast self-examination, and what signs to look for, at the last Courage to Fight Breast Cancer workshop of 2017 in Aïntoûra, Lebanon. Ten more workshops are planned for 2018 in remote regions to make sure we reach as many women as possible. Thank you so much for supporting the C2 campaign!
Fatima Beydoun and Dr. Myrna Doumit, C2 workshop, Ablah, July 2017
An-Nahar published a great article about C2 in July, which can be found here. For non-Arabic speakers, we have provided an English translation below!
Courage to Fight Breast Cancer: 33% of Lebanese women are vulnerable
The Lebanese American University (LAU) has taken on breast cancer, in part thanks to the dedication of the Courage to Fight Breast Cancer Program, led by Dr. Myrna Abi Abdullah Doumit, Assistant Dean of the School of Nursing at the University. Dr. Doumit is driven by a personal commitment to this cause along with the University's own commitment to the issues of humanity and well-being, which Dr. Doumit summarized by using the motto: "I and the university together." Thus, it was not difficult for a graduate of LAU, Mrs. Hiba Yazbeck, a resident of the United States who courageously lived through the experience of coping with the malignant disease, to find a way to initiate a breast cancer awareness program with the help of her alma mater. The result of this creative initiative was to raise awareness about the malignant disease in a scientific and effective manner.
It is worth mentioning Lebanon has one of the highest breast cancer rates in the MENA region when it comes to younger sufferers of breast cancer. The fear, according to statistics, of these high rates despite all the efforts of state institutions and civil society organizations are real. Mrs. Hiba Yazbeck could have dealt with her illness in a purely personal way, without any solidarity with others who are suffering, but she chose with her husband Chady, the difficult path of self-less love by deciding to use her courageous experience to help others in her native country of Lebanon through a donation to her alma mater. The Lebanese American University (LAU) chose to help her in this endeavor of assisting Lebanese women in early detection and identification efforts in order to treat the malignant disease as quickly as possible.
The Lebanese American University (LAU) did not hesitate to embrace and sponsor the gift of Hiba, due to LAU’s long standing social commitment and the involvement of the School of Nursing team, in particular Dr. Doumit in the framework of the Courage to Fight Breast Cancer Program in coordination with the Ministry of Public Health, propelled the idea to be pushed forward. Together, the partnership launched an ambitious campaign to raise awareness about the danger of this disease and the importance of early detection and prevention. This program led Dr. Doumit to all parts of Lebanon from Kfarkila in the south to Deir Al Ahmar in Bekka and Halba in the north and dozens of remote villages and towns where women heard, perhaps for the first time, about the importance of early detection. The program also encourages women to undergo a mammography. Lebanon is one of the few countries in the world that allows women to undergo free mammography test annually in many hospitals and health centers.
Dr. Doumit and the Ministry of Health have overcome many difficulties and achieved many achievements. Dr. Doumit explained that things are steadily evolving for the better thanks to the cooperation of all of them. Mrs. Hiba Yazbeck, who funded the idea, is now seeking to expand the funding of this vital project and raise its outreach, while the university, represented by Dr. Doumit, is strengthening its contribution to the project by training workers in health and social centers in remote areas to identify breast cancer. The LAU Nursing Club is also active in organizing awareness campaigns at all levels for educated and uneducated women alike, as cancer rates have recorded alarming numbers in Lebanon.
The Lebanese American University (LAU) supports the ambitious project of raising awareness, led by Dr. Doumit, which makes the university's campaign "a very big and important issue", especially with expectations that the rate of affliction in Lebanon could reach unprecedented levels, up to 40 percent in the upcoming years. Dr. Doumit concluded that the university is committed to this cause as a part of its educational, social and humanitarian mission, which she hopes will reach its graduates and every last village in Lebanon.
In addition to Dr. Doumit’s outstanding academic record, she will soon have the title of (FAAN - Fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing). This title is held by only 2,500 elite nursing experts all over the world. She will receive her membership in October in Washington, DC, at a grand ceremony. This is a proud addition to the Lebanese American University (LAU) in general. This title is held by five academic nurses in Lebanon and is one of the important centers in the nursing world. Lastly, the excellent leadership of Dr. Doumit and the School of Nursing, which began in 2009 and gradually developed until it received accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). It has very high qualifications and has signed several memorandums of understanding with a number of selected hospitals. This is a great incentive for the university and nursing students in Lebanon to plan for a more promising and productive future.
Photo: C2 workshop, December 2016 in Mashha, Halba Akkar, North Lebanon
Thank you so much for supporting the Courage to Fight Breast Cancer campaign! For more information, visit LAU News.
Courage to Fight Breast Cancer: YEAR 1
C2 has already held workshops in 9 communities and helped over 400 women! We're crowdfunding for Year 2, but in the meantime here's some information about Year 1. Check in with us on October 12 for a Facebook live event and interviews with participants at our 10th workshop in Aintoura!
November 2016: Deir Al Ahmar, Baalbek, Bekaa
November 2016: Kfarkila, Marjeyoun, South Lebanon
December 2016: Mashha, Halba Akkar, North Lebanon
February 2017: Kfarsaroun, Koura, North Lebanon
April 2017: Deddeh, Koura, North Lebanon
May 2017: Ras El Metn, Baabda, Mount Lebanon
July 2017: Saida, South Lebanon
July 2017: Ablah, Zahle, Bekaa
September 2017: Rashaya el Fokhar, Hasbaya, South Lebanon
And coming up on October 12, 2017: Aintoura, Kesserwan, Mount Lebanon!
2262 days ago by Erika Iverson
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