PENNSAUKEN, NJ – Boat People S.O.S. (BPSOS) has been awarded a $50,000 grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its New Jersey Health Initiatives Program. BPSOS will use the funding to launch Health Awareness Program for Immigrants – Camden (HAPI-Camden).

HAPI-Camden is an outreach effort to educate Vietnamese-American women about the risks of cervical and breast cancer, the benefits of preventative screenings and where to go for free or low-cost screening and treatment. BPSOS is collaborating with Planned Parenthood of Southern New Jersey and Cooper Health System’s Camden County Cancer Screening Project to provide these educational and referral services.

Since 2000, BPSOS has provided services to the Vietnamese community in Camden, New Jersey through its Community Technology Center, located in Pennsauken, New Jersey. In addition to HAPI-Camden, BPSOS provides adult literacy classes, youth activities, mental health pre-screening and referral, tax clinics, first accounts for “un-banked” persons, financial education, and community awareness workshops on occupational safety and environmental justice.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, NJ, is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grant making in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to quality health care at reasonable cost; to improve the quality of care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse – tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.