International Women’s Hope Centre (IWHC), a non-governmental organisation active in the Upper East Region, organised a breast cancer screening exercise at the Bolgatanga Senior High School and the Sandema Senior High School. The events were planned to commemorate October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Gladys Anayem, the organisation’s Executive Director, explained that the exercise was planned in order to educate young teenagers about breast cancer. Furthermore, the practice would teach the girls how to conduct self-examination on themselves to find lumps that might be a sign of cancer.
“As you know, we are in breast cancer awareness month. The organisation therefore is organising this exercise, to first of all, create awareness of the disease and also help these young adolescent girls learn how to perform self-examination on themselves. You know, if they feel a lump in their breast, this could be a sign and they will need to visit an expert for interpretation.”
The organisation in collaboration with two midwives from the Ghana Health Service examined Eighty-Six (86) female students at the Bolgatanga Senior High School. Also, one hundred and ninety-five adolescents and women benefited from the free breast examination at the Sandema Senior High School in the Builsa North Municipality.
According to the Director of IWHC, the organisation intends to visit some other schools in the region to extend the same service before the end of the Breast Cancer awareness month.
“Actually, we hope to visit two more senior high schools in the region to offer similar breast screening exercises. Hopefully, Azantinlow Senior High School and Zaurungu Senior High School.”
The International Women’s Hope Centre (IWHC) is established to see to the reduction in cases of teenage pregnancy and to support teenage mothers to achieve economic wellbeing and quality of life. The organisation also offers medical education and support services to teenage mothers.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gerard Awombadek Asagi|Ghana
