On World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, a check for $337,677 was presented to Saint Joseph’s Mercy Care Services by U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Mercy Care Services provides health care and social services to those in need in Atlanta—primarily the uninsured, the underinsured, people who are homeless, and new immigrants.

The funds represent a portion of federal dollars allocated to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and will support the full continuum of services for Mercy Care’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Program, which seeks to reduce disparities in access to care and early cancer detection.

What started at Mercy Care Services in 1995 as a program to provide Pap smears to 250 women who did not have access to this important cancer screening has grown into the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program that exists today. The program has provided education and screening for cancer prevention as well as treatment to more than 5,000 women who are African-American, Hispanic, Vietnamese, new immigrants and/or homeless.

The ability of this program to provide quality care is due to federal grants as well as funds generously provided by Saint Joseph’s Mercy Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation, Avon, Johnson & Johnson, the Komen Foundation and others.

Saint Joseph’s Mercy Care Services is part of Saint Joseph’s Health System, which also includes Saint Joseph’s Hospital, a 346-bed, acute-care, specialty hospital in Atlanta. Saint Joseph’s is sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy and is a member of Catholic Health East.