In November 2020, NOVA Hope for Haiti partnered with Hope for Haiti (hopeforhaiti.com) to train our medical staff on cervical cancer screening and prevention.
Innovating Health International (IHI), a non-profit organization dedicated to treating chronic diseases and addressing women’s health issues in developing countries, traveled to NOVA’s clinic in Cavaillon to train our two organizations on how to educate, screen, and treat women in our communities.
The beauty of this program is how cost-effective, simple and painless the testing is. The testing can be done by doctors or nurses. The equipment is portable and thus works well for mobile missions or on-site clinic testing. If pre-cancerous cells are found, the woman receives a one-time treatment immediately at the clinic.
During the training week, one hundred women were tested and almost 20% were identified as at risk for developing cancer and immediately received treatment. This positive screening rate is higher than the usual 10-15% positivity rate. This verifies the program is even more important to the women in our community than we originally anticipated.
We are grateful to our supporters whose generosity enables us to purchase the training supplies and specialized medical equipment necessary to bring this program to NOVA and Hope for Haiti.
Below are some photos from the week – including the training of our staff and the local women attending the education session prior to testing.
