Yes, you are right awareness is the key. There are many NGO's and many other organisations working towards BC awareness. We appreciate your offer to help, we shall surely contact you once we plan something.
I am also a physician, and I think we can't wait for a plan. We have to get more doctors involve in this. Specially if we can get ob/ gyn back home, just to get them one Mamogram at 35 . And we can also target schools, the best way to get message to moms.
Welcome to the forum... Sincerely appreciate your efforts to offer help. I would like to share my thoughts on this topic,...
I am from India, However at present live in Toronto, Canada. Got diagnosed in 2014 and Just finished my targeted therapy treatment on August 12, 2015...We all share the same feeling of how do we create awareness in India....Many of our forum members do carry on several initiatives to spread the awareness and go above and beyond to help and provide moral support to the patient and to the caregiver.
First of all population is the biggest factor to achieve 100% outreach.To my knowledge I don't think there is a centralized registry in India...however individual hospitals might have records. Last year around June 2014, there was a big debate on "Sex education" whether it is needed or not....my opinion is, India does need a "Health Education" in schools at least an hour class per month...to create awareness about every organ including "Breast and related diseases"...
You mentioned that we can make a simple flier and give out to school...its a good thought, to start the awareness at that level so that it can spread early and quickly through a child to her/his mom.......However who will carry out the task of educating the students and teachers...how can it be made part of regular curriculum or practice....we need Public health care workers who can be dedicated to do this job and doctors and physician help the patients to carry on the diagnosis at the affordable cost.
The disease is no longer confined to urban setting ...and it had started spreading to rural population as well...so literacy place a major role in understanding the disease. Lacking culturally appropriate education about breast cancer and awareness, due to multi ethnic, multi lingual and multi cultural society, which calls for individual or region centric management guideline and approach to the awareness....
Please share your ideas and thoughts on how you wanted to approach this....Can more physicians be inspired to go on field to spread the awareness or to offer diagnosis using mobile clinics....how do we promote these initiatives and how do we raise funds?
Of course we need a strategy and plan to approach this as Global Initiatives to strengthen the capacity of individuals and organizations to launch an effective education, awareness and advocacy campaigns to have a greater outreach and I believe this forum itself a " great initiative" to start with, however as you aspired we need more doctors and more health care professionals to be part of this forum to come up with innovative collaborative community projects that address the most pressing breast cancer needs in their community.
October being "Breast Cancer Awareness" month.....this topic is worth for discussion.
I wish you a successful treatment and speedy recovery.
I am from state of Kerala in India. My wife has been diagnosed with CA breast and is undergoing treatment. It was an eye opener for me on the spread cancer in the society, and the hardships in a country like India. I cant speak about whole of India, however the cancer awareness is high in Kerala. But the real problem is how to deal with it, once diagnosed. There are not many speciality institutions around. Secondly the cost of treatment is unaffordable for most of the patients. As of now there are not any effective programme by the government to take care of the patients who are underprivileged and poor. I understand a substantial number of patients give up treatment after sometime due to financial difficulties. There should be a combined effort by the government NGOs and even individuals to take care of cancer patients and there should be efforts to make cancer treatment free to all needy patients.
Where are you in the U.S.? I am in Southern California, north of Los Angeles. I would encourage you to google the prometora model, an approach used to reach Hispanics who are out of the mainstream in terms of health education and care. I taught in an all Hispanic school in downtown LA where health care was a major issue for a variety of reasons. This system is making a difference. I think it's an approach that might also be effective in India. Perhaps we can connect by phone at some point to play ideas off of each other.
Dr. Deval, I can understand when you say "We cant wait for a plan". There are lots of NGO's already doing work on breast cancer in India and lots of doctors as well. Since you are based in US, you might not be aware of the same as also the ground realities in India.
One of the biggest examples of this work on breast cancer in India, if you haven't realized by now, is this forum itself. This was started by an NGO The Pink Initiative three years back and it has helped a lot of people in India, both patients and caregivers alike, to overcome BC. Presently, this is the ONLY forum for breast cancer patients in India. Similarly, The Pink Initiative (and many other NGO's, for that matter) have been working aggressively on promoting BC awareness. Things are not all that simple, and it takes great effort to reach out to Indian population; Ms. Ujwala Raje, who heads The Pink Initiative, will tell you. There are doctors on the panel, who themselves go and hold out Powerpoint presentations for women to educate them.
Fliers, pamphlets, posters, advertisements, social media, SMS, mobile based apps etc. everything has been done by many NGO's. But it's not like you can go and tell people and they will listen to you and instantly do a mammography. There are lots of different kinds of barriers we face here in India.
Anyways, lots of people are doing lots of good work, including many members from this forum as well. There are many NGO's who hold camps for women in rural areas and educate them. There are other initiatives as well.
If there is something, where we feel we can take your help, we shall very much let you know and we are obliged for that. If you wish to share any idea, please feel free to share it.
I am not aware of the NGO's in Ahmedabad. I searched on Google and there are quite a few. Probably you can look up and contact them.
Kutch has quite a few charitable hospitals, one of my patients told me there is a good hospital in Bidada. It is not always necessary to do something through an NGO only. If you know the doctors there, you can probably plan out a strategy for that particular area, targeting the people in the drainage area of the hospital. If the authorities at the Hospital are motivated and if the Village or town head is also motivated enough, one day can be earmarked and women can be offered a Gynecological consultation with Pap smear for everyone and a session can be organized educating them about BC
A lot of NGO's are working now and they do sincere efforts not only for cancer awareness and health education but also provide free screening and hospice care. They also run online forum for health education.
Moreover , I see hospital too are now have formed their own support groups of patients and they are a great pillar of strength for survivors and for those who are newly diagnosed.
Many doctors are also now actively involved in this noble cause, they work in interior regions of country with camps to provide free screening, follow up or hospice care.
I have been working for this and I too run a support group called Anandi cancer sheroes with the help of doctors to provide health education and, I see things are changing, in both government and private hospital too.
Would also like to share here about an Indian NGO, Goonj who recently have been awarded prestigious Magsaysay award.
Please have a read on their one of the schemes for menstrual health, a totally unspoken topic in India to create a napkin revolution in rural areas. Really a great and noble initiative, I'm totally inspired.
Well, It's good you wish to take an initiative for bc awareness, every voice for this great initiative is a great concern. I suggest you may approach any National NGO who are working for cancer or human health , they may have their branch in Ahmedabad too.
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