The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) at the University of Ghana launched, on Saturday, October 20, its new Breast Cancer awareness campaign dubbed the 'Nufu Festival'.
The campaign, conceived to become an annual celebration of breasts and life, seeks to focus less on the negative aspects of the disease, highlighting instead its prevention, treatment, and management.
“We want to be non-conventional in our approach to breast cancer awareness creation,” says Dr. Lily Paemka, a geneticist and lecturer at the Centre, who leads the campaign. “We are trying to ease some of the doom and gloom that often surrounds the disease and create a relaxed environment for women and men to discuss the dangers of Breast Cancer as well as its prevention and treatment.”
Dr. Lily Paemka
Nufu Festival provides the researchers at WACCBIP the platform to disseminate important facts about the underlying genetic causes of Breast Cancer, and to address some socio-cultural myths surrounding the disease in Ghana. The campaign also seeks to encourage more women and men to get their breasts checked by experts and learn to perform regular self-examinations.
“Breast Cancer is a genetic disease. It is not contagious, and it is not a curse,” says Dr. Paemka. “We want women to understand that the disease is not as mysterious as many of the myths will make them believe. It is preventable and treatable if detected early.
Market women take turns to be screened.
The maiden event under the campaign, held at the Sarbah Field on the University of Ghana campus, brought together experts from the University and some partner institutions who led discussions about Breast Cancer and provided free breasts screening for participants. Overall, more than 130 women were screened and given important counselling and consultative services. There were also several fun activities including quizzes, Zumba, and dance competitions.
The second event under the campaign, which sought to engage and provide free breast screening for women in and around Madina, was completed on Saturday, October 27 to coincide with the launch of the new Madina market. The event was organised in partnership with the the La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal Assembly (LaNMMA).
Market women at the Madina Launch
The WACCBIP team held individual and group discussions on Breast Cancer with guests at the event, highlighting prevention and management strategies and addressing several long-held misconceptions of the disease. Addressing the gathering, Dr. Paemka encouraged regular checks for both men and women, old and young. She explained that high Breast Cancer mortality rates among populations of African descent were mainly due to late detection.
“Don't think you are too young to get Breast Cancer, you can develop the cancer at younger ages too,” Dr. Paemka said. “And it's not only about women; men also get breast cancer. About one percent of all breast cancer cases are in men and it happens to be higher in black men. Unfortunately, men are more likely to die from breast cancer because they do not check; they don't expect to get breast cancer.”
Women and men who were present at the launch of the market consulted with teams of registered nurses from the University of Ghana Hospital and trained volunteers from the Hope, Faith & Love Group who joined the WACCBIP team for the event. More than 300 people were screened.
Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP
Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP, said that initiatives like Nufu Festival were important for fulfilling the mission of the Centre, which is to improve diagnosis, prevention and control of tropical diseases through training and research excellence.
“At WACCBIP, we support initiatives that seek to minimize the threat of disease and prolong life and that's why we are fully behind this initiative that seeks to raise awareness about Breast Cancer,” Prof. Awandare said. “Our people-oriented initiatives complement our research into tropical diseases perfectly and they give us opportunities to interact directly with the people whose lives we do research to safeguard.”
From left to right, Dr. Linda Eva Amoah, Dr. Lydia Mosi, Dr. Lily Paemka and Dr.Theresa Manful Gwira cut the Nufu cake to officially launch the festival.
Research into Breast Cancer at WACCBIP, led by Dr. Paemka, focuses on characterizing genetic risk factors associated with the disease among Ghanaian women. The Nufu Festival campaign complements the scientific efforts at the Centre to find healthcare solutions to the high prevalence and mortality rates associated with the disease in Ghana.
“At WACCBIP, we love Science, but we also love what the Science is for; saving lives and preventing deaths,” Prof. Awandare said. “Once we do the Science, we need to create awareness about the diseases that we work on and we try as much as possible to prevent them. Even, in as much as we try to find solutions to the diseases, we want to make sure that we minimize the occurrence of these diseases as much as possible.''
Dignitaries at the Madina launch of the Nufu Festival
Participants dance to Zumba
The second Nufu Festival will be held in October next year and is planned to draw in more partnership and reach a larger number of men and women with its celebration of breasts and its message of prevention and management of Breast Cancer. This year's Nufu Festival was completed successfully with support from Cocoa Processing Company Limited and Ghana Textile Printing (GTP) Limited.
