Building fully renovated in 2020
Fundraising to prevent cervical cancer in Gambia.The aim is to screen women to detect a possible cervical cancer early enough to prevent it.
There is good and bad news!First the bad news. Do you know that in the world every two minutes a woman dies of cervical cancer?And unnecessarily, because cervical cancer is 100% preventable.That’s the good news! You all know vinegar and how cheap vinegar is, but what you don’t know is that vinegar is a life saver!With vinegar we can screen hundreds of thousands of women in Gambia to prevent this disease.
In Holland about 200 women every year die of this type of cancer but in development countries it’s over two hundred thousand, we don’t even know exactly.Imagine the impact this has on the family, the children, the loss of a mother…
Last year I heard about a method to detect abnormal cells in the cervix with vinegar, its developed by a Dutch gynecologist who founded the Female Cancer Foundation to share this discovery in the world and invented the “See and Treat “ method.This doctor, Lex Peters, wants to put a stop to the loss of so many women unnecessarily. We are the Irmakunda Fund Gambia, already active in different fields in Gambia since 2002. We are following his idea in the Gambia in cooperation with the FCF and SOS clinics.Cervical cancer is caused by a virus, the Human Papilloma Virus, that can not be cleared by the immune system of the body, but young people can be vaccinated. In my country Holland this disease is not so frequent and we go for pap smear every three years for prevention but that is expensive. In Development Countries 80% of the affected patients die of cervical cancer!
But we can be winners because it takes about ten years for an abnormal cell to develop into a cancer cell and with the VIA method, Visual Inspection with Acid, we have enough time to prevent the cells to become cancer cells.What we want to do is to inform all the women of their chance to remain strong and healthy and want to convince them to come for the simple, painless screening with a swap dipped in vinegar and tip the cervix that will show the abnormal cells because they’ll turn white. Then we start immediate treatment by destroying the abnormal cells with a medical device called the C3 thermo coagulator. This instrument is rechargeable by electricity and can also be used mobile like in rural areas that don’t have electric supply.
The See and Treat method is without complications and side effects, won’t affect menstruation or pregnancy at all.If the cervical cancer is developed it is too late! Then we can only make the women comfortable with painkilling but not save their life…That is why I am bringing this to your attention. The method with vinegar is an easy and cheap method to prevent heartbreaking conditions but we urgently need more of the medical instruments, they are hardly here, only about two in SOS mother and child clinic. They need help cover more areas and reach a lot more women than they are currently able to.
Women everywhere have a right to any possible quality of life, to have children and see them grow up. I am in a privileged position because of the medical care in Holland, it makes me very conscious and that drives me to bring this method to the Gambia and share this treatment. We need any support we can get to renovate the building we already possess into a hygienic suitable health center and purchase the medical equipment and then we can prevent cervical cancer. It starts with vinegar!
Source and inspiration : Dr. Lex Peters