19/8/2020
We will donate 1€ for each purchase (at participating retailers) of these items
Breast cancer is the most common forms of cancer in women. Education and prevention are crucial components to help prevent the disease and recognise it early on. The sooner the disease is discovered, the better the chances of recovery are. Early detection and education is also what the “Health Days” project is about, carried out by NPO Think Pink Europe, which ANITA will be supporting in a special campaign in retail shops in October, i.e. breast cancer month.
The available knowledge on the subject of education and health care are rather limited in Bosnia-Herzegovina .
Women rarely receive medical primary care or check-ups so that breast cancer is unfortunately only very rarely detected early
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The health care system is decentralised and fragmented: It is divided into 13 individual ministries for health and social services which results in segregation and discrimination in terms of patients’ health and social insurance law because guidelines and legislation vary from one administrative level to another. Families are often not adequately informed about their rights. In addition, prevention programmes are scarce and ad hoc.
The official school curriculums do not include health education either. Therefore, it is all the more important to regularly and permanently raise awareness about these malignant diseases. Both cancer prevention and the early detection of cancer are essential tasks that a vital network comprised of health experts, cancer survivors and partners are vigorously working on together.
Women in rural areas are subject to a higher risk of social exclusion because access to medical services is made more difficult.
Rural areas have more conservative attitudes and values when it comes to health issues. Some truly severe problems of women from rural areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina include:
These are all alarming facts which is why it’s all the more important to increase awareness for breast cancer in rural as well as urban areas, focusing on at risk societal groups.
One the one hand, this applies to women suffering from breast cancer, women in remote rural areas with insufficient knowledge as well as health and social insurance. On the other hand, however, this also applies to healthy women who have never even heard of breast cancer before and have never undergone a mammography.
As part of the “Health Days” project, women will additionally be offered free medical check-ups such as glucose and blood pressure measurements as well as other check-ups (e.g. densitometry, pap smear tests). The scope of these check-ups depends on our partners’ possibilities, medical facilities, and specialists.
With our Health Days, we build and strengthen the collaboration between society , breast cancer survivors and medical facilities as well as their specialists from the private and public sector. This collaboration enables life-saving check-ups for those that need them.
At each Health Day, a minimum of 50 mammograms, 50 screenings, and additional check-ups are offered. For the duration of the Health Days, expert talks about breast cancer are held as well. They aim to demonstrate the importance of regular medical check-ups and a well-balanced lifestyle in an effort to improve the health of women from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
