Grassroots Partnership to See and Treat Cervical Cancer in Rural Uganda

Abstract 9Background:In Uganda, cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, affecting 45 in every 100,000 women annually and killing 25 in every 100,000 annually. To effect change, two Canadian registered charities partnered with a Ugandan nongovernmental organization, a university, and the Ministry of Health to develop a novel screening, treatment, and educational training program. The two major goals of our program were to develop a training program for health care providers in southwestern Uganda for visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid (VIA) and a cryotherapy see and treat model; and to implement the first cervical cancer screening program of its kind in the Kabale region of southwestern Uganda.Methods:Our program was developed in partnership with Mbarara University of Science and Technology, a grass-roots Ugandan community development organization (Kigezi Healthcare Foundation [KIHEFO]), a Canadian charity that is focused on providing medical and dental care and educational trai...