A non-governmental organisation, Health Education and Empowerment
Initiative, HEDEN, has intensified its battle against the spread of
Cervical Cancer, with the deepening of its collaboration with the
Society for Family Health.
This was made known at the end of a three-day enlightenment campaign
which was carried out at Arepo community in Ifo Local Government Area
of Ogun State, recently.
The beauty of the partnership, the Executive Director of HEDEN, Mrs.
Folasade Ofurune, said, was the inclusion of the screen-and-treat
options carried out by SFH during the enlightenment campaign.
During the three days programme, no fewer than 74 women participated
Of the 74 women who were tested, 28 were found to be positive and
treated immediately.
Speaking at the session with participants, Ofurune explained that the
campaign against the killer disease was intensified because of the
fact that it could be avoided if adequate information were made
available on how best to avoid it.
She added that her organisation had found many women in the
hard-to-reach areas very vulnerable to the disease because of
ignorance.
She said: “No woman should die of cervical cancer in this day and
age, yet each year more than 260,000 women do, mostly in low-income
countries and under-served communities.
“In order to stem the death of women and girls from cervical cancer,
and rekindle the lost hope of many women, HEDEN has strengthened its
partnership with Society for Family Health, SFH, by embarking on a
3-day awareness, screening and treatment programme at Arepo community,
Ifo local government area of Ogun State.”
Ofurune said early detection and treatment of the disease had been
found to be useful in the presentation of untimely death hence the
efforts of the two groups.
The HEDEN boss who spoke on how best to avoid the disease, highlighted
the risk factors which could lead HPV to result in full cervical
cancer include “multiple sexual partners, early age at first sex,
early childbirth (earlier than 18); sexually transmitted infection
(STIs) eg Chlamydia, HIV and AIDS, smoking and use of tobacco, low
immune system, history of many births and poor personal genital
hygiene.”
The representative of SFH, Mrs. Abiodun corroborated Ofurune and
advised that cervical cancer should be prevented through early
detection screening.
According to her, most women are unaware of the disease and few that
are aware have failed to pay attention to it.
