IHI & Share Hope Partnership
More and more women are being diagnosed with cervical cancer in Haiti. We've come across hundreds of cases ourself and more often then not, the patients are seen when their cancer has reached an advanced stage and/or when it is too late.
We've partnered with Share Hope, to educate, test and treat the women that work in the multiple factories in the industrial parks. ShareHope is a company aiming to build a community in Haiti where people have dignified work, fair wages, the chance to learn, access to quality health care and so much more. Through their factory clinic improvement program, they are able to improve the health services provided to the workers.
Our midwife/nurse Nanotte and 2 community health workers have been going to factories to do the fallowing:
1. Spread awareness about cervical and breast cancer
2. Test the women workers for HPV (Human Papillomavirus) which is the main cause of cervical cancer
3. Give breast exams
4. Train the on-site nurses on how to test for HPV and treat it on their own*
(Photos of our midwife/nurse Nanotte, 2 community health workers and some of the women workers during an awareness session)
During one of their trips, our nurse and community health workers were able to test 282 women for HPV for 2 factories ! At the first factory they were able to bring awareness to 212 women and 3 men. Among those 212 women, 155 were tested for HPV and 180 had a breast exam. At the second factory, they were able to bring awareness to 191 women, 112 were tested for HPV and 120 had a breast exam.
*If a woman tests positive for HPV, we treat her immediately with thermocoagulation. Our nurse also uses this opportunity to train the on-site nurses in those factories so they will be able to perform those task on their own. They are able to test for HPV and also treat it before it worsens and turns into a cancer.
This project is also incorporating our screening program for breast and cervical cancer. Our goal is to screen 4,000 women for the duration of the project and we have screened about 400 so far! All of the screenings are being done at the SONAPI by our nurse.
Follow Share Hope!
Check out their website at: http://www.sharehope.com/
