WOMENAID µ INTERNATIONAL | |||
| THE PINK RIBBON PROJECT | |||
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| Health for All | |||
| The WomenAid Pink Ribbon Project is a breast cancer awareness and action programme to raise hope, awareness and funding to ensure women living in Third World countries receive the best care and support. The primary goals of the Pink Ribbon Project are to:
Women who live in the developed countries have a significantly better chance of survival than women in less developed countries. Obviously appropriate and timely basic treatment, let alone the best treatment available, is dictated by national priorities and resources. WomenAid aims to assist women in countries lacking basic resources to secure adequate breast cancer provision. Currently self-examination is probably the only feasible approach in Third World countries. Sadly, in most developing countries, the majority of cancers are detected only after they have reached an advanced stage. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cancers in advanced stages are disfiguring and painful, treatment often mutilating, and survival rates low. Priority throughout the world , and particularly in developing countries, should be given to programmes of prevention and detection. The WHO programme, Cancer is a Third World Problem Too, is seeking to encourage more investment in screening programmes, and in training health workers in cancer detection. Nothing would have a larger impact on cancer in the foreseeable future than global application of what is already known. Education for prevention is a key component of the World Health Organisation's Cancer Control Campaign. A third of all cancers are preventable, and another third curable, according to the programme's leader, but only minimal resources are being allocated for prevention or early detection in countries throughout the world. WomenAid, under its Partnership for Health activity, is campaigning for the establishment of a World Council on Breast Cancer to link breast cancer advocacy in all regions of the world and to ensure all women have access to life-saving medical facilities. The breast cancer epidemic, with a death toll expected to exceed half a million women globally in the year 2000, has been called an international public health crisis. Cultural norms in many countries often present an additional barrier for women with breast cancer to overcome. In many countries women are afraid to let their families know they have breast cancer in fear of discrimination and they try to hide their illness or surgery. Become a Breast Cancer Advocate Take action to break the silence and stop the epidemic! | |||
| WOMENAID | |||
INTERNATIONAL