Gaza, October 12 (BNA) Health authorities and charities in Gaza are intensifying their efforts to persuade women to get screenings for breast cancer, in the hope of overcoming the social stigma in the conservative Palestinian enclave over dealing with the disease.
As part of a “Flawless” campaign launched by the private charity Fars Al Arab in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Muslim religious leaders have encouraged early detection and bakers have attached similar messages to bread packets, Reuters reported.
A mobile test truck has taken to the road, providing scans to about 150 women a day for the past week at the start of the annual International Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.
“The phrase ‘flawless’ is a message of hope and safety for all women, asking them to go ahead and check it out,” said Georgette Harb, campaign leader.
“There is a group in society that deals with the issue with shame, and they treat the word mastectomy as if it were obscene or shameful,” Harb said.
The Ministry of Health said that breast cancer accounts for 32% of cancer cases among women in Gaza.
Cancer patients there face multiple problems ranging from poverty and lack of medicines in the area’s hospitals to some difficulty in going for treatment to Israel and the West Bank and beyond due to permit restrictions.
During the campaign, Gaza’s main telecommunications company Paltel lit its headquarters in pink, the color that shows breast cancer awareness, and more organizations are set to follow suit.
The Gaza Strip, a narrow coastal strip on the borders with Egypt and Israel, is home to about two million Palestinians. Poverty and unemployment rates are high in the pocket.