In recent years, the organisation has noted a high rate of absences on the scheduled exam dates.

In March, Américas Amiga began a national campaign with the objective of raising women's awareness about the importance of attending and having mammograms scheduled. This is because, in these five years of operation, the NGO realized that about 30% of women miss the previously scheduled exam. Through banners and posters fixed around and inside the health institutions, the institution intends to make them aware and reverse the situation of absences, which has been common in the hospitals benefited by the NGO. In Pernambuco they are: Hospital Barão de Lucena, in Recife and APAMI, in Petrolina. Mammography is the radiological examination of the breasts, performed with a low dose of radiation, almost negligible, to produce images that provide information about the inside of the mammary gland and the axillae. It is the main examination capable of diagnosing breast cancer at an early stage, when there is a 95% chance of cure. That is why performing this examination annually, in addition to clinical exams, when you are in the right age group - from 40 years old onwards - becomes so important to fight the disease, because breast cancer is one of the diseases that kills the most women in Brazil and in the world. And it is to enable this access that Americas Amigas has promoted, for five years, the donation of equipment to health institutions participating in the Programa Amigas de Donação de Mammógrafos e Equipamentos Correlatos à Mamografia (Donation Program of Mammography and Mammography-Related Equipment). However, there is no point in equipping hospitals if women do not attend the exams. "Unfortunately, we have noticed a very high percentage of women who schedule mammograms but do not attend the exams," said Francisca de Paula Harley, president of Americas Amigas. Although the numbers of absenteeism vary according to the institution, neighborhood and municipality where the equipment is installed, the situation is worrying in general. As a consequence, besides the equipment being idle, women lose the chance of a life-saving diagnosis. Another consequence of absenteeism is that patients at the end of the line do not anticipate their exams or have to wait longer to schedule their mammograms. "All the problems caused by absenteeism are of great concern to us, which is why we launched the campaign on this symbolic date. We are working to reverse this situation, because we worry about women who do not carry out their diagnosis. Some do not do it because they are afraid that the exam will hurt, or because they have no way to be away from home or work. This is why we want to make them aware of the importance of the examination and help them to have access to it", adds Francisca de Paula Harley. Absenteeism The non-attendance of scheduled exams is not exclusive to mammography. According to data from the Navy Health System, for example, there is an incidence of absenteeism of 25% in the most diverse Military Health Organizations and even in the Non-Marine Health Organizations.