The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (GI-KACE) has launched a Pink Week Celebration as part of its effort to commemorate global Breast Cancer awareness in October.
The pink week celebration is GI-KACE’s support of the global effort to create awareness about breast cancer, support breast cancer patients, and promote early detection and treatment. Through the ‘Pink Week’ initiative, GI-KACE seeks to encourage stakeholders, staff, and students to undertake activities with the shared goal of reducing breast cancer by 2.5 percent per year.
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Speaking at the launch, the Director General for GI-KACE, Dr. Collins Yeboah-Afari, entreated all men and women to get screened because early detection and prompt action are crucial to surviving breast cancer.
“I am excited to witness the maiden edition of the Pink Week Celebration. I am particularly impressed about our collective efforts to raise awareness for breast cancer by way of screening for early detection and supporting patients and survivors,” he said.
Dr. Yeboah-Afari further stated that in the coming years, the Pink Week Celebration will expand to provide support to breast cancer patients, take breast cancer education to communities and hopefully give hope to breast cancer survivors in this nation.
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Dr. Yeboah- Afari passionately appealed to men to support women living with breast cancer and support breast cancer awareness initiatives to help build a stronger, healthier community where no person deals with breast cancer alone.
In a welcome address, Kobi Hemaa Osisiadan-Bekoe, Director for Corporate Affairs and Media Relations was thankful to the staff and students for the exhibition of passion and willingness in participating in the maiden edition, adding that the energy being created today will allow the Centre to achieve its goal of helping curb Breast Cancer.
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Addressing the gathering, Dr. Nana Ama Durowaah Abankwa, Family Physician Specialist from the Trust Hospital disclosed that breast cancer is one of the treatable forms of cancer and can occur at any age but, regular breast cancer screenings and mammograms are among the top methods of breast cancer prevention.
She urged the men and women at the Centre to avoid smoking and excessive intake of alcohol and pick up healthy habits like adding vegetables and fruits to their diet to help maintain healthy body weight.
The Pink Week Celebration which was officially launched on October 24, is expected to run till October 28 with several activities lined up to create awareness and screen both women and men, particularly in GI-KACE and MDA’s, staff, students, and private organizations in the Ministries enclave.