The Constanta County Library is partnering with local organizations to facilitate support groups for breast cancer survivors. The library is developing and strengthening ties to the community while offering information and support for women’s and maternal health issues.
Constanta has a higher incidence of breast cancer than Romania nationally. Maria Frangeti and Luminita Lupescu are two breast cancer survivors working through local NGOs to address awareness and education. Lupescu’s organization, Partners in Progress, focuses on support groups and trains librarians to facilitate the groups through a grant from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation [8]. Carmen Sorina Stan, one of the participating librarians, spoke about her experience with the project: "The feeling that motivates me is one of usefulness. To know that you can offer the right information, the needed help, to the one who opens the door of your library is an accomplishment. I like to believe the universal network of the good is working in our library." Support groups now use four libraries in the system as community spaces where they can come together and share information.
Hosting the support groups builds upon an event held to promote the International Day of Action for Women’s Health last May. In partnership with the Constanta Women’s League and other organizations, the County Library developed a week-long series of activities drawing attention to the critical issues surrounding reproductive health rights and Romania’s progress toward the Millennium Development Goal’s target for improving maternal health. Through a public roundtable, high school information sessions, and a health fair, the Constanta libraries and civil society organizations joined together to effectively reach their community with important health information.
Participants joined IREX and the Biblionet team in galvanizing support for improved maternal health nationwide by signing an open letter to the Government of Romania calling for comprehensive and affordable reproductive health services accessible to all members of society.
The activities were largely funded by the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR). The Constanta library system responded to the WGNRR Call to Action by getting involved in maternal health and universal access to reproductive health activities for the first time. IREX continues to support developing innovative new activities like this; not only increasing educational and cultural programming offered at public libraries, but also improving access to lifesaving health information and strengthening librarians’ potential to be advocacy leaders in their communities.