The OCI Foundation is pleased to announce that its President (Dr Chris Ifediora) and other team members will be making formal presentations at one of Nigeria’s top cancer conferences, which is being put together by the National Cancer Control Program (NCCP) of the Department of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), Nigeria.
The event, also being co-sponsored by the World Health organisation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and a number of other leading cancer institutions in Nigeria and the world, is being organized as part of the “2020 Edition of the Annual International Cancer Week (ICW)”. The theme for this year’s edition is “Cancer in Nigeria in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond”, and will last from Tuesday, October the 27th, to Thursday the 29, 2020, at the NAF Event Centre, Ahmadu Bello Way Abuja, Nigeria.
The event offers a wide range of in-person and virtual sessions, discussions, trainings, and networking opportunities for experts, policymakers, researchers, advocates, and early and upcoming leaders in cancer control in Nigeria. Participants can also join virtually via zoom.
Dr Anga Fatima Inusa, the OCI Foundation’s LAMS Liaison Officer, will be featuring with a number of face-to-face presentations for the Foundation. The OCI Foundation’s 3 presentations are:
- “Fight against Breast And Cervical Cancers in Nigeria: A mixed methods evaluation of a high school intervention, PLUS the role of a Mobile Phone Application”.
- “A re-think on Breast Cancer preventive campaigns: targeting senior secondary school students PLUS the role of a Mobile Phone Application”.
- “A whole new approach to Cervical Cancer Preventive Campaigns in Nigeria and other developing countries”.
This outing, which allows medical professionals from the OCI Foundation to interact with the scientific community in Nigeria, marks another notable landmark in the OCI Foundation’s commitment to the Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Health Campaign. The ArOY Campaign is a novel, Harvard-endorsed, WHO-supported, and evidence-based health promotion initiative of the OCI Foundation, which is being introduced across all senior secondary schools in Nigeria as a way of tackling breast and cervical cancers. In September 2019, it was rolled out across all the 261 senior secondary schools in Anambra State of Nigeria, and a similar event, scheduled for Benue State in May 2020, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of Nigeria’s 36 states (and the FCT) are expected to benefit from the ArOY campaign on or before the end of 2025, and the ongoing activities are part of this whole process.
The Campaign has the support of the, NextGenU.org (the World’s first online University), the United States Centers for Disease Control (U.S. CDC) and the University of British Columbia, Canada (ranked 45th in the world, according to the 2021 QS World University Ranking). Experts from these institutions, along with others from the University of Saskatchewan (Canada) and the Griffith University (Australia), will work with the OCI Foundation and the Nigerian Government on the roll-out, implementation and monitoring of the ArOY project. In addition, the prestigious Harvard Medical School, USA, of which Dr Chris Ifediora (the Founder of the OCI Foundation) is an Alumnus of, had earlier endorsed the Campaign, and made significant contributions to the Campaign’s design ahead of its roll out in Anambra State last year.
A number of other reputable Nigerian institutions partnering the OCI Foundation on this initiative include the Innoson Group, the NYSC (National Office), the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs (Nigeria), Nollywood Nigeria, the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS), Silk Road Restaurant (Abuja), and the Post Primary Schools Service Commission, PPSSC (Anambra state), among others.
There are also plans to involve the Office of the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Nigeria’s Governor’s Forum (which includes the Governors of all the 36 States of Nigeria), and Nigeria’s Ministries of Health, Education and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
