In the field of health communication and education, JBCP adopts two different yet complimentary approaches to increase the level of knowledge, change attitudes and improve practices concerning breast cancer risk factors, screening, and early detection methods.

• Campaigns and Mass Awareness Activities


The first approach focuses on mass awareness activities including national campaigns, and frequent participation in exhibitions, events and mass media (magazines, newspapers, etc.) In cooperation with all partners and stakeholders, JBCP conducts two national campaigns each year; one in March that builds on the hype of Mother’s Day and International Women’s Day and the other in October, which is the International Month for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Every October, breast cancer organizations and charities all around the world celebrate the International Month for Breast Cancer Awareness. This October, the Jordan Breast Cancer Program is launching a massive nation-wide campaign aimed at educating and raising awareness of the public at large and females in specific on breast cancer and the importance of early detection, with a particular focus on encouraging women aged 40 and above to get their mammograms.

Throughout the month of October, JBCP is collaborating with the various health sectors in Jordan in the implementation of a multitude of planned activities that will be held throughout the Kingdom, including road shows, information booths and exhibitions in major shopping malls, superstores, schools and universities, interactive and educational lectures, free clinical breast examinations and discounted mammograms at public and private hospitals and centers, television and radio coverage, a free hotline, the production and distribution of educational brochures, posters and pink ribbons – the symbol of breast cancer awareness – among countless other activities.

As Jordan’s largest and most widespread breast cancer awareness campaign yet, the October Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign 2008 is expected to engage thousands – from the school student to the homemaker to the career woman – in the national fight against breast cancer.

For a list of our events in October, please click here.

• Outreach and Interpersonal Activities


The second approach is directed more towards interpersonal and outreach activities that are smaller in scale but can have a greater impact on behavioral change such as interactive lectures, a permanent hotline ( 0 800 22 246 ), training on self breast examination (SBE), and so on. This approach closely engages key informants and gate keepers, such as educators and health professionals, for the promotion of information and services.

• Outcomes

Through the expanding collective effort of all partners, JBCP hopes that each year, more and more females in Jordan will be engaged in the fight against breast cancer. The results thus far are encouraging; the 2007 October Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign reached 3 times as much of the target population than in 2006. For example, whereas only 431 women in Jordan got a mammogram in October 2006, this figure leaped to 1,788 in October 2007.

Moreover, in October 2007, more than 31,000 females received clinical breast examinations (CBE), an equal number of females were trained on SBE, and around 50,000 women attended awareness lectures on the early detection of breast cancer.

This significant improvement has undoubtedly reflected on breast cancer staging in the country. In less than one year’s experience, preliminary indications from the King Hussein Cancer Center data already show a significant shift in staging of the disease, with more cases being diagnosed at Stage II than in the past.