EfferentCares kicks off four-month free cervical cancer screening program for women in Lagos

Women in Lagos State will be opportune to get continuous access to free cervical cancer screening and treatment options within their community health facilities regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds.

The women are expected to converge in six designated community screening centers in Lagos State from April 2019 through July 2019, a program organized by efferentCARES Initiative, a social impact non-governmental organization dedicated to improving health delivery and access through innovative solutions across Africa, in collaboration with the other stakeholders.

Speaking about the program, Founder, efferentCARES Initiative Ezinne Anyanwu, said the ScreenHER program was launched in 2018, an initiative aimed at increasing cervical cancer awareness among women. Anyanwu added that since inception, efferentCARES has provided access to cervical cancer education, screening, and treatment to over 3000+ women, and trained 150 healthcare providers on quality cervical cancer screening practices using innovative technology that allows for better visualisation and assessment of medical cases.

According to her, the free cervical cancer is geared at increasing awareness, visibility for the cause and most importantly reduce the number of women who die each year as a result of late detection from cervical cancer in Nigeria.

She stated that in Nigeria, a total of 26 women die daily as a result of cervical cancer, with 14,089 new cases diagnosed annually, while 64 per cent of those women die as a result of late detection. She explained further that the mobilisation and sensitisation drive is aimed at impacting over 3000+ women in four months.

Anyanwu acknowledged that women make incredible impacts at all levels of development in the nation, either at home, as entrepreneurs, in the corporate world, down to the grassroots and it is, therefore, a responsibility for all stakeholders to ensure that our women are healthy. She also encouraged women to come out for the screening and access care at their convenience at the different centers, which include:

• St. Timothy Catholic Hospital, Ojodu Berger from May 16 to May 18, 2019
• Regina Mundi Catholic Hospital, Mushin on May 29-30, 2019

To kick off the four-month program, there was a ScreenHER Walk on April 20, 2019, a press conference and community stakeholders forum.