Some practical problems I have faced in my professional life, and would like to change

I am a women health advocate and I founded LEAH foundation, a non-profit organization that is devoted to the survival of the woman.

My involvement in cancer advocacy started over 6 years ago. As a foundation, we have been actively involved in providing massive awareness, sensitization, education, and also providing diagnostic and screening services related to breast, cervical and prostate cancer.

We are focussed on cancer care because it is an illness that currently has no definitive cure; medical experts currently agree that it is much better to prevent cancer or at least, detect cancerous cells in good time, to stand a chance of benefiting from possible treatments. Lastly, we realised that the awareness on cancer and early detection is low in my community.

In terms of targeting and coverage, although men also benefit from our outreach and services, we mostly target women and children. We have focussed on communities in different parts of my home state – Kwara, in Nigeria; reaching out to diverse socioeconomic groups like the rich, poor, educated, semi-literate, illiterate, young, and old, among others.

In spite of our seemingly best efforts, available records show that the cancer screening uptake is abysmally low. Put differently, the number of people actually participating at our cancer diagnostic and screening programmes is extremely low when compared to the number of people we believe, need our services.

Based on my personal opinion which is also informed through engaging (a) my colleagues at work, (b) experienced medical personnel, (c) people who share in my passion, and (d) some of the participants, we realized that the low turnout of participants at screening programmes could be traced to the following problems;

1. Prevailing religious, cultural and social belief systems: We realized that some people believe breast cancer or related illnesses are the result of spiritual attacks and as such, they would rather handle a very obvious physical problem, with spiritual solutions they best understand. Others appear to be misguided by flawed religious teachings which forbid them from getting screened.

2. My political exposure and affiliation: One group of people believe the screening services should be made absolutely free of charge since the organization was founded by the wife of the state governor. Another group believe that the screening cannot be thorough or effective since the cancer center is just a pet project of the wife of the governor.

3. Funding: In the quest for sustainability of the LEAH projects, getting funds from individuals and organisations has been a major challenge locally. Being a politically exposed person, most people have the erroneous belief that I have all the funds I need for the execution of various projects/programs we run. Thus, they feel assisting my various causes is more like pouring a bucket of water into an ocean.

In conclusion, I am already working with my team to surmount these challenges by seeking alternative means of mass re-orientation, re-education and awareness.