2024 WORLD CANCER DAY: OCI Foundation joins UICC and NCS to mark the event and “CLOSE THE CARE GAP” (04/02/2024)

February 4, 2024: The OCI Foundation has joined the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and the Nigerian Cancer Society (NCS) to mark the event the 2024 World Cancer Day themed “CLOSE THE CARE GAP”.

OCI Foundation is an official member of the UICC, a global non-governmental organisation of world anti-cancer advocates founded in 1933, which now has some 1,180 member organisations in more than 170 countries. The UICC headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland.

The OCI Foundation is also a member of the NCS, the national body of anti-cancer NGOs in Nigeria.

Every year, the OCI Foundation marks World Cancer Day with the “Grand Finale” of its Anambra ArOY Health Campaign Schools Challenge (a.k.a. Anambra AHCSC), a statewide quiz competition that helps promote the Foundation’s Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Anti-cancer Health Campaign.

The AHCSC is set to become a national Nigerian exercise soon, as part of the OCI Foundation’s quest to introduce the ArOY Campaign and anti-cancer teachings into the curriculum of all senior secondary schools in Nigeria.

In 2023, the OCI Foundation worked with the NCS and other cancer advocates to successfully pass a legislative bill that will make the ArOY Health Campaign a national project. That Bill is now awaiting Presidential assent to become law in Nigeria.