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ALEPPO, Syria — Coinciding with Breast Most cancers Consciousness Month, the Syrian Civil Protection, referred to as the White Helmets, launched a campaign aimed at educating Syrian women in opposition-controlled areas in northwestern Syria about breast most cancers.
The marketing campaign, dubbed “Don’t Delay It,” focuses on the significance of early detection and self-examination and the influence on restoration charges, in response to an Oct. 7 publish on the White Helmets’ Fb web page.
Fatima Obeid, coordinator in control of the ladies’s facilities affiliated with the White Helmets, advised Al-Monitor, “The long-standing conflict waged by the Bashar al-Assad regime has had very adverse results on the Syrian folks. Ladies have been the most important victims of this conflict. Not solely have they confronted bombings, displacement and lack of their breadwinner, in addition they misplaced entry to health-care services.”
She famous, “Amid the dire residing circumstances in northwestern Syria, ladies’s bodily well being is not a prime precedence. Ladies’s well being care has change into unavailable, particularly in camps the place massive numbers of Syrians lack the minimal life requirements. Securing meals and getting sufficient water and heating materials [for the winter season] are extra urgent wants now.”
Obeid stated, “Ladies in northwestern Syria lack consciousness and data of breast most cancers and the necessity for early detection, despite the fact that it is without doubt one of the commonest kinds of most cancers amongst ladies. This prompted the ladies’s facilities of the White Helmets — of which there are 33 within the opposition areas in northwestern Syria — to launch this marketing campaign at first of October, referred to as Breast Most cancers Consciousness Month or Pink Month.”
She added, “One feminine volunteer from every middle acquired coaching supplied by the Syrian Medical Association for Syrian Expatriates. The coaching was given over two consecutive days in three periods on the finish September. In flip, these skilled volunteers taught their fellow feminine volunteers easy methods to increase consciousness with ladies who go to the ladies’s facilities for medical care.”
She identified that 260 feminine volunteers participated within the marketing campaign, distributed over the 33 facilities throughout northwestern Syria, together with the countryside of Aleppo, the western countryside of Hama, Idlib and its countryside, and the Latakia countryside.
Elaborating on the objectives of the “Don’t Delay It” marketing campaign, Obeid defined it goals primarily at elevating consciousness of breast most cancers and its unfold amongst all age teams. “The marketing campaign focuses on the significance of early detection in restoration, whereas emphasizing the significance of self-examination,” she stated.
She famous, “It’s simple for the White Helmets feminine volunteers to succeed in Syrian ladies due to their direct contact with them. These volunteers present medical care, whether or not within the [displacement] camps or within the 33 ladies’s facilities. The local people trusts the White Helmets volunteers and this allows them to ship consciousness messages and recommendation to ladies, and to have a constructive influence on ladies.”
Obeid identified that “some Syrian ladies requested that the White Helmets volunteers manage extra particular consciousness periods within the camps to teach ladies. [Such feedback] motivates us to accentuate efforts to lift consciousness on breast most cancers in society typically, and amongst ladies particularly, for his or her nice position in transmitting consciousness and steering to all their relations.”
In response to Obeid, this marketing campaign is the primary of its form in opposition areas. “We shall be organizing this marketing campaign yearly. We can even improve the coaching supplied to volunteers on methods of coping with ladies and speaking data. The coronavirus outbreak in northwestern Syria prevented us from organizing massive bodily periods.”
Ladies with breast most cancers in opposition areas in northwestern Syria have issue receiving therapy. The Oncology Center at Idlib Central Hospital affiliated with the Syrian-American Medical Association is the one breast most cancers therapy middle serving these areas.
This middle’s work is, nonetheless, restricted to early detection of the illness and therapy of some instances. It has a scarcity of some extremely priced medicines and doesn’t supply free prognosis or radiotherapy.
In response to the World Well being Group (WHO), breast most cancers is without doubt one of the commonest kinds of most cancers amongst ladies globally. WHO dedicates the month of October to lift consciousness about it. One girl out of each 12 ladies will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, and about 685,000 women died from it in 2020, WHO reported.
Heba Mawas is without doubt one of the White Helmets volunteers who helped increase consciousness of breast most cancers for Syrian ladies within the village of Nahliya within the southern countryside of Idlib. She advised Al-Monitor, “The ladies’s middle [in Nahliya] organized consciousness periods about breast most cancers. Throughout the periods, we observed that ladies lack consciousness and data about this illness. Additionally they lack health-care providers.”
She stated, “By these periods we make clear breast most cancers causes and signs. We confirmed ladies easy methods to do a self-examination and harassed the significance of early detection to scale back the incidence of this illness. There was an important turnout. The knowledge these ladies acquired by way of these periods elevated their data and inspired them to be taught extra about breast most cancers.”
Khadija Mohammad, one other White Helmets volunteer who works within the ladies’s middle of Qurqania city within the northern countryside of Idlib, advised Al-Monitor, “The conflict diminished consciousness about breast most cancers, particularly amongst ladies. Each girl ought to be effectively knowledgeable about the sort of most cancers. Breast most cancers will be detected by self-examination or by skilled examiners. We began organizing periods to lift consciousness and encourage self-examination and testing.”
Leila Suleiman, a displaced mom of three from the northern countryside of Hama who now lives within the metropolis of Idlib, attended one of many coaching periods organized by the White Helmets marketing campaign.
She advised Al-Monitor, “I’m very grateful for the feminine staff from the White Helmets for his or her marketing campaign to lift consciousness about breast most cancers. I now notice the significance of early detection and self-examination, and was launched to the signs of breast most cancers.”
“I do know now that there’s a 97% likelihood of restoration in case of early detection. [The team] additionally taught us about early detection. And each girl should concentrate on this data,” she added.
