The Nation: Anambra partners NGO on breast, cervical cancer education in schools

May 2, 2019

She commended the Foundation for initiating the programme, urging them to come up with guidelines for its seamless implementation.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Joe Akabuike, said the government would provide the necessary support for the project to succeed.

Akabuike said about 16 per cent of women aged 20-60 had pre-cancerous lesions.

He said the prevalence could come down to cancer in the next 20 years if not properly taken care of.

“One of the greatest challenges we have in the developing world is that we neglect preventive medicine and go for cure when we lack money and facilities to cure ourselves. Our women are dying because the society does not see their lives as worth saving.  These diseases can be treated at zero level but usually nothing is done until it gets worse,” he said.

Legal Adviser of the Foundation, Mr Onyechi Ononye, who led the group, said the group visited to raise awareness ahead of the implementation of the campaign.

He disclosed that the campaign was endorsed by the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Expressing concern over the increasing rate of the diseases, Ononye said the Foundation had developed an evidence-based initiative that would ensure that the teachings were delivered in a sustainable and cost-effective ways to students in the country.

He said: “We assure you and everyone else that the OCI Foundation will keep her part of this initiative, just as we have always done.

“Our focus is to do all we can for the ultimate winners of this programme who are not just our women, but men that will marry them and the boys and girls they will give birth to.”