Daily Times

LAHORE: In order to mark October as the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Pink Ribbon has once again launched a countrywide ‘Youth Awareness Drive’ in collaboration with Higher Education Commission.

This college programme would involve nearly 200 colleges and universities across Pakistan to reach out to over 100,000 young girls, equipping them with necessary knowledge about the disease. As the ratio of breast cancer in young girls is alarmingly increasing in the country, Pink Ribbon aims to educate young girls about prevention and early diagnosis.

In the past four years, the campaign has been able to successfully reach out to over 1,050,000 women and 540,000 female students with knowledge and techniques to detect breast cancer at an early stage. Since the campaign started, there has been a 30 percent increase in patient turn-up at breast cancer clinics nationwide.

Regarding the campaign, Pink Ribbon Chief Executive Omer Aftab said, “The campaign aims to create widespread awareness while bringing it in mainstream to urge policy makers to take up this issue as priority. The gravity of the situation still requires more focused and systematic approaches to address the issue of increasing incidences of breast cancer in the country. Our campaign aims to disseminate the hope of a cure to the maximum number of women in the shortest possible time.”

Higher Education Commission Advisor Shaheen Khan described breast cancer as a major social issue, which needs immediate measures. “Higher Education Commission has been working with Pink Ribbon since 2011. Pink Ribbon will not be able to approach hundreds of universities alone, without the sincere efforts and support of HEC,” she said adding that in collaboration with HEC, Pink Ribbon is empowering young girls with the knowledge and techniques to detect breast cancer at early stage as breast cancer is registering an alarming increase in young girls of Pakistan.

She said, “We must realize that this problem is very close to our own homes and needs a concerted and consistent approach to be dealt with. We will use all possible resources for the success of the campaign and efforts will be made for conducting meaningful research in this area. We will use all our considerable resources for success of this campaign. HEC and Pink Ribbon will form a working group for need assessment and formulation of action plan for more campaign and research work.”

Pink Ribbon Pakistan is a non-funded, self-sustained campaign, mostly supported by different government departments, contributions through public philanthropy and volunteers from all over the country. After the successful campaigning about breast cancer, a much needed step has been taken by the organization to build Pakistan’s first dedicated breast cancer hospital. Pink Ribbon is seeking for generous donation from philanthropist individuals and to corporate sector for the complication of hospital.