Who we are

 

FEMAMA, The Brazilian Federation of Philanthropic Breast Health Institutions, is a non-profit, Non-Governmental Organization, organized to bring a reduction in the breast cancer death rates in Brazil. Present in the majority of Brazilian states under a national coalition with other NGO's, influencing the creation of a unified agenda of public policies towards breast health care.

Femama was founded on July 22th, 2006 during the meeting Visao de Futuro 2006-2015 (View to the Future) by Imama, The breast health Institute of Rio Grande do Sul. There were 32 founding partners, from philanthropic institutions, private enterprise representatives, and volunteers from various parts of Brazil. The need to create Femama stems from the project Te Toca Brasil (Brazil Get a Grip) which is the union of institutions linked to fight breast cancer with aligned objectives.

Since its foundation, FEMAMA's focus has been to increase awareness to the medical community, the government and the general population to have access to information, guarantee access to mammograms, fight for mammogram quality, reduce the waiting time between diagnosis and treatment, and pool resources aiming to unify federal breast cancer policies.

The challenges have been enormous, the efforts and scope to deal with lack of information and effective public policies made FEMAMA a very unique patient's resource. Among many achievements we have had the approval of the Law 11.664/08, which insure an annual free mammogram, by the national health system (SUS) to all women over the age of 40.