As mentioned previously, the Center will provide assistance to women coping with breast cancer in different areas related to the disease. The Center is vital to providing solutions in these areas. Existing organizations partially cover some of these functions but the current treatment is not satisfactory.
Wigs can be purchased in appropriate shops; support groups exist in various assistance
organizations for cancer patients (and this activity is certainly laudable); movies can be
rented from video libraries; and so on. However, no place unites all functions, easing the
process, and prepares women for successive stages of treatment, helping them to complete
the difficult journey somewhat more easily.
The Israel Cancer Association provides support through "Yad Le'Hachlama". Such support
is very helpful, but insufficient. Volunteers offer support and answer questions willingly,
but this support is primarily sporadic. Beyond these support groups and this advice, given
the magnitude of the shock that the cancer patient experiences, she needs a community.
This aspect is completely lacking today, and the absence is great. The mutual support
women will get from each other at the Center is physical, daily, constant, and more
available. At issue is much more than the support that a woman who has completed a
particular stage of treatment can give a woman experiencing it now. The Center would
house a real community with bonds between women at all stages, where each helps and
supports the other during the difficult times even if she herself has not passed that stage
of treatment yet. The ability to provide this support and form such a community derives
from the shared experience and from the redefinition that occurs in personal identities,
without reference to which stage one is currently passing. Indeed, from conversations
with survivors, it is clear that a center such as this is a pressing and urgent need among
women coping with breast cancer.
The Center in no way intends to replace or compete with already existing organizations. Rather, it will constitute a needed addition and work cooperatively with them.
The mission of the Center is to serve as a welcoming "home" for women grappling with breast cancer. The Center will furnish emotional and social support as well as provide for the psychological, physical and informational needs that arise at diagnosis, during treatment and afterwards. The Center will combine the atmosphere and accessibility needed for a supportive community with accommodation of the physical needs accompanying medical treatment.
Hadadi is a Hebrew word meaning mutual, as in mutual support or mutual understanding. There is also a level of word play involved as the name also contains the word dadi, one of the words for of or related to the breast.