By Ana Garces, executive director, One Voice Against Cancer, Guatemala
Today I presented at the plenary session hosted by the American Cancer Society at the International Conference on Public Health in the 21st Century: The Endgame for Tobacco being held in New Delhi, India.
Drawing on my organization's experience as an American Cancer Society global Relay For Life® partner since 2004, my presentation was titled Fundraising, Membership and Grassroots Mobilization through Relay For Life. I presented examples from One Voice Against Cancer’s educational campaigns for cervical, skin, and prostate cancer to outline how we help with cancer prevention in Guatemala through education, advocacy, and research.
I also talked about the very positive impact the Relay For Life movement has had on Guatemala in terms of changing local paradigms related to cancer occurrence. This includes creating awareness among the general public about the fact that about half of cancers are preventable or treatable if detected early.
Equally important is the participation and celebration of local survivors at Relay events. In a country where cancer is often considered a punishment and accompanied by a very bleak diagnosis, meeting cancer survivors and their families at our Relay events is a unique opportunity that has given hope to many Guatemalans.
Finally, I emphasized the importance of adapting the Relay For Life guidelines to the local in Guatemala context for hosting a successful of event.
I hope attendees at the session will be able to learn from our experiences in Guatemala. Personally, I know that I will return home with many new ideas. Through the session, I have learned about the power that personal stories of people affected by tobacco have to advocate for a tobacco prevention strategy, as well as the important role NGOs can have in saving lives by linking research results to community interventions.
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