Sandals Foundation contributes to fight against cervical cancer
ACCORDING to the Jamaica Cancer Society, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer affecting women in Jamaica.
The realisation that women in and around the parish of St Elizabeth didn’t have access to diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer caught the attention of the Sandals and Bob Marley foundations last year. In mid-July of 2015, the foundations gifted the Women’s Health Network a colposcope to benefit women in the regions of Santa Cruz, Magotty and Black River through the Black River Health Centre. The colposcope allows for the examination of the cervix, vagina and vulva following Pap smear results that show abnormality.
The foundations committed to provide funding over a two-year period towards this initiative. One year later in 2016, the foundations have taken the initiative a step further and donated two additional pieces of medical equipment — an Autoclave valued at $650,000 used for the sterilisation of medical tools, and a Cryo unit valued at $800,000 to assist with the treatment of cervical cancer. The donation of these two pieces of equipment to the Women’s Health Network towards their health mission resulted in 485 women being served by the Black River Health Centre in two days on July 12 and 14. The mobile health mission will move to the parish of St Mary this month.
Being in possession of these pieces of medical equipment allows the clinic to operate full service from diagnosis to treatment in the same location and on the same day, saving time which proves to be a vital element for successful treatment. Prior to the contributions of the medical equipment, women in St Elizabeth were faced with travelling outside the parish or going on lengthy waiting lists to gain access to the treatment.
Dr Rudolph Stevens, executive director of Women’s Health Network, has expressed that the procurement of the pieces of medical equipment will assist in achieving the national population-based screening target for cervical cancer of at least 80 per cent of Jamaican women aged 25-54 years screened at least once every three years.
The donations to the Women’s Health Network over the two-year period falls under Sandals’ Women Helping Others Achieve (WHOA) programme. Sandals Foundation subsequently partnered with the Bob Marley Foundation to support WHOA, a women’s empowerment programme that supports women in underserved communities in Jamaica and across the Caribbean. The programme targets key areas that women have struggled to be recognised in, including agriculture, the work force, health, education and sports. The WHOA programme has impacted the standard of life for women in Jamaica and several Caribbean countries including The Bahamas, Antigua, Barbados and Grenada.
