SOS in fight against cervical cancer

SOS Children’s Villages Malawi has introduced a project aimed at combating cancer, a disease that kills more than 1,600 women annually in Malawi.

The organization on Friday launched the second phase of Save My Mother Cervical Cancer project during an occasion that took place in Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe.

Speaking to the media after the launch, SOS National Programs Officer Hope Msosa said phase two of the project will bring together all stakeholders with a common goal of fighting cervical cancer.

“Our main call is that we need to strengthen collaborations between all stakeholders to ensure that all women who are in eligible reproductive ages to develop cervical cancer are screened and those women who are at treatable stages of cancer are treated,” he added.

According to Msosa, the project will be piloted at district level to see how it can be fully implemented nationwide.

The organisation will pilot the project in three districts namely Chikhwawa, Chiradzulu and Mangochi.

“What we want to do with this project is that we want to pilot a district level campaign. Based on piloting a district level campaign we will get lessons learnt and feed it into government so that government learns on how it can execute a national level campaign,” said Msosa.

During implementation, SOS will use simple methods to determine if it can reach as many women as possible in the three districts.

When many women are reached, the project will be replicated at national level.

Msosa said that although SOS focuses on vulnerable children it has realized that many other children lack parental care when their mothers die of diseases such as cervical cancer hence initiating the project to save women in Malawi.

He also noted that most of the children they are supporting lost their parents.

“In this case it becomes difficult for children to grow up without a mother. This is the reason why we need to save lives of women of Malawi so that children should have parental care at the end. So we are doing what we are supposed to do to look at the children in terms of the key causes of the children abandonment and in most cases is the death of their parents. We don’t need to see mothers dying due to preventable diseases such as cervical cancer,” he added.

The launch brought together people from various sectors such as education and health.

Malawi24 caught up with one of the participants, Priscilla Phiri, who is a third year student at University of Malawi, College of Medicine.

Phiri who is studying Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) told Malawi24 that she decided to attend the launch of the project to link what she learns in class and what is on the ground based on presentations from experts.