LIVESTRONG BLOG

New Global Commitments to Women's Health

Jul 24, 2009 by Brooke McMillan

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LIVESTRONG announced substantial new commitments to support women?s health and the health of female cancer survivors from Brazil, Greece, Nigeria, South Africa and the United States as part of the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Campaign, an initiative to aggressively address the global cancer burden.

Maria Caleffi, Founder of Federação Brasileira de Instituições Filantrópicas de Apoio à Saúde da Mama (FEMAMA) in Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil, is networking for breast cancer control in her country. By improving the conditions for survival through adequate tools and training, she hopes to reduce mortality rates and eliminate the stigma of the disease, allowing survivors to claim victory and turning breast cancer into a curable disease if detected at an early stage. Founded in 2006 to educate non-profits in the fight against breast cancer, FEMAMA operates around three basic strategies ? mobilize the community, advance medical research and fund government advocacy. There are 32 members across Brazil in the FEMAMA network.

Brother Charles Anthony, CEO of the The Ormylia Foundation, Center for Disease Prevention, Panagia Philanthropini in Ormylia, Greece, is committed to providing specialized cancer outreach to underprivileged women, regardless of race, religion or creed in Greece. The Ormylia Foundation offers free mammography, clinical breast examinations, clinical pelvic examinations and pap smears, and teaches breast self-examinations with the goal of giving 7,000 screenings to underprivileged women per year for the next five years. Ormylia Foundation staff will travel to remote communities and use churches, businesses, schools and central town locations, among others, to reach out to women.

Princess Nikky Onyeri, Founder of the Princess Nikky Breast Cancer Foundation in Abuja, Nigeria, is relaunching the Forum of African First Lades Against Breast & Cervical Cancer this month. Her Foundation is focused on a number of initiatives, including: lobbying for the inclusion of cancer treatment in the national health insurance plan; strengthening the national cancer plan and ensuring it stays on the national health agenda; translating breast, cervical and prostate cancer awareness pamphlets in local languages; expanding the progress made in Nigeria by helping neighboring countries in Africa implement the model to draft cancer plans and uniting cancer advocates across Africa to change the myths surrounding cancer.

Beverly Du Toit, cancer survivor and volunteer with The Cancer Associate of South Africa in Sundowner, South Africa, teamed up with a fellow survivor to create The Cancer Coping Kit, a free audio-tape to empower newly diagnosed survivors and their families with practical tools and techniques that promote physical, emotional and mental well-being. Her goal is to make The Cancer Coping Kit available to more people by ensuring its availability at the moment of diagnosis, translating it into additional languages and increasing distribution to five more countries and 50,000 kits.

Martha Hayward, Founder of Remember Beads/Womens Health Exchange in Ipswich, Massachusetts aims to reach women worldwide and assure them they are not alone in their fight with breast cancer through the use of ?beads? that transcend language barriers and cultural differences.

We are so appreciative to all involved with the summit. These commitments will make significant changes in the global fight against cancer. To read more about the new commitments and the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit, please visit www.livestrong.org/global