Ema Berger and Bettina Hoar. Leigh Miller, Enrique Jinchuk, Mike and Ema Berger, and Bettina Hoar.

The American Association of Uruguay (also known as the American Women’s Club of Montevideo) has donated a mammogram machine to the Hospital de Young in the department of Rio Negro.

The machine was dedicated to the hospital during an official ceremony on July 31, which included a ribbon-cutting for the hospital’s new $300,000 imaging laboratory.

Designed to detect early-stage breast cancer, the machine was purchased with funds raised during the American Women’s Club’s silent auction in Montevideo in late 2007. (See related article.) The club decided to donate the mammogram machine to Young because its was concerned about the high rate of breast cancer in Uruguay, especially in the interior of the country. Uruguay has the highest rate of breast cancer in Latin America, with some 1,800 new cases and 650 deaths each year.

“We want to thank the health minister, the intendente of Rio Negro and the local hospital authorities for their presence on such an eventful day. We hope this mammogram machine will be able to save many lives,” said American Association President Ema Berger.

American Women’s Club Past-President Bettina Hoar, who organized the 2007 fundraiser, explained that the club’s goal was to “find a way to reduce the alarming incidence of deaths due to breast cancer by providing public access to methods of prevention for women in the interior of the country.” “Hopefully, this will remind women throughout the country to get themselves tested regularly,” she said.

Some 10,000 women in the region surrounding the city of Young are expected to receive breast exams using the donated mammogram machine.

The Jewish organization, B’nai B’rith, assisted the American Women’s Club in purchasing the mammogram machine from the United States, importing it into Uruguay and arranging to have it installed in the Hospital de Young. The group will continue to report on the machine’s use and effectiveness.

Among the speakers at the dedication ceremony were Hospital Director Juan Pablo Apollonia, Rio Negro Intendente Omar Lafluf, local Health Services Administration Director Félix González, Public Health Minister Maria Julia Munoz, Ema Berger, and B’nai B’rith President Enrique Jinchuk.

For more information about the American Association of Uruguay, visit www.awcmontevideo.org or write to americanassociationuruguay@gmail.com.