Minority Ethnic Women’s Health
Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons and Equalities Minister Jane Hutt addressed the Minority Ethnic
Women’s Network (MEWN) Awareness Day event in Swansea.
The event aimed to highlight the importance of engagement and working together across organisational boundaries to breakdown the barriers experienced in trying to access services.
A DVD explaining the services provided by Swansea Social Services in a variety of languages and an Information Booklet for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Communities on primary care services were also launched at the Awareness Day.
Dr Gibbons said: “These two resources will provide an enormous amount of support and information, helping to break down barriers to accessing healthcare and social services. The successful partnership work shown here is to be highly commended.
“In the wider picture, we have been funding a health awareness project for ethnic minority women in Cardiff and Newport through the national MEWN Cymru body. We have extended this funding to 2008 so that the project can continue its excellent progress in influencing healthcare professionals in cultural awareness.
“We are all working hard to ensure these types of improvements continue, and we will need the support from all our partners and the community to ensure provide better services for the generations of today and tomorrow.”
Jane Hutt said: “The valuable work carried out by MEWN Swansea has been greatly welcomed by the community. It addresses important issues of training, educating and supporting women from groups whose voices are often not heard.
“MEWN has helped to build confidence by making guidance, support and information more accessible to those who may need it and I think this should be commended.
“It is so important that we work together in initiatives such as this. It is only through achieving fuller participation that we can help to promote the issues facing women, particularly those from Minority Ethnic communities.”