AMMAN (JT) - The King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF) is introducing an innovative workplace awareness project for breast cancer in cooperation with Vital Voices Global Partnership (Vital Voices) and the Middle East Partnership Initiative.
The project, entitled “Making it Our Business”, falls under the umbrella of the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research and supports the work and goals of the Jordan Breast Cancer Programme, according to a KHCF statement.
It seeks to engage a number of established private sector companies in Jordan to commit to educating and raising awareness on breast cancer and early detection methods among customers, employees and their families.
HRH Princess Dina Mired, KHCF director general, highlighted the importance of the project in encouraging the early detection of breast cancer among the private sector.
“This project will reinforce public-private partnerships as it will focus on professional women and men in the private sector and play a key role in the expansion and outreach to all sectors of society bringing them together in the fight against breast cancer,” the Princess said.
“We realise that we have mountains of challenges ahead of us, but we also know that it is a journey that must be taken, as each year breast cancer is taking away our mothers, sisters, daughters and friends, so unnecessarily, all because women do not know a simple truth, that early detection of breast cancer can save their life,” she added.
“Making it Our Business” focuses on promoting early detection and screening, both of which are critical to improving breast cancer survival rates.
Volunteers from participating private sector companies will undertake train-the-trainer workshops that empower them to spread the word in the fight against breast cancer, the statement said.
Up to five employees from each company will then take on the responsibility of conducting internal workplace awareness training on early detection with the continued support of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation and Vital Voices.
During these sessions, trained employees will be able to share with fellow colleagues, spouses, mothers, daughters, sisters and friends the knowledge they have gained on how early detection of breast cancer can save lives.
The major health concern in Jordan with regard to breast cancer is that 70 per cent of cases are being presented at advanced stages, during which survival rates are low and the disease is less curable.
Treatment options and chances of survival are better when breast cancer is detected early, with the five-year survival rate of early stages (0-II) estimated at around 90 per cent.
Furthermore, while women in most Western countries are afflicted with breast cancer at a median age of 60, Jordanian women are afflicted at a much younger age (median age of 49 years) when they are still raising children, caring for their families, and contributing to the development of society, the statement noted.
In 2007, the foundation and the King Hussein Cancer Centre took on the leadership of the Jordan Breast Cancer Programme, a nationwide initiative for the development and provision of comprehensive services for the early detection and screening of breast cancer.
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy afflicting women in the Kingdom as well as the most common cancer in the country overall. According to the latest statistics from the Jordan National Cancer Registry, over 650 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. With the incidence rate steadily increasing, the number of diagnosed cases is projected to continue to increase, according to the statement.
The project will launch its first training-of-trainers workshop in April, to be followed consecutively until the end of 2008 with three more rounds in order to allow for the largest number of interested private sector companies to join the fight against breast cancer.
For more information and to sign on your company to the “Making it Our Business”, contact Yasmine Pharaon at 06-5530800 ext. 17 or e-mail Yasminepharaon@vitalvoices.org.