GAZA: Health authorities and charities in Gaza are stepping up efforts to persuade women to be tested for breast cancer, hoping to overcome social stigma in the conservative Palestinian enclave over dealing with the disease.
As part of a “There’s no shame in it” campaign launched by private charity Fares Al-Arab in conjunction with the health ministry, Muslim preachers have been promoting early detection and bakers have enclosed similar messages in bread packages.
A mobile testing van has taken to the road, providing scans for some 150 women a day over the past week at the start of the annual international breast cancer awareness month in October.
“’There’s no shame in it’ is a message of hope and safety for every women, telling them to go ahead and check,” said Georgette Harb, the campaign’s leader.
“There is a category in the community that deals with the issue as shameful, and they deal with breast removal and the word breast as if it was obscene or shameful,” said Harb.
Breast cancer accounts for 32 percent of the cases of cancer among women in Gaza, the health ministry said.
Cancer patients there face multiple problems ranging from poverty, the lack of medication in the territory’s hospitals and some difficulty going for treatment to Israel, the West Bank and beyond due to permit restrictions.
During the campaign, Gaza’s main telecommunications company PalTel bathed its headquarters in pink lights, the color illustrating breast cancer awareness, with more institutions due to follow.
Gaza, a narrow coastal strip that borders Egypt and Israel, is home to about two million Palestinians. Poverty and unemployment in the enclave run high.
Health activists fight stigma to raise breast cancer awareness in Gaza
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Health activists fight stigma to raise breast cancer awareness in Gaza
- A mobile testing van has taken to the road, providing scans for some 150 women a day over the past week
- Breast cancer accounts for 32 percent of the cases of cancer among women in Gaza
Palestinians have right to live in peace in ‘own land’: pope
- The two-state solution “remains the institutional framework that addresses the legitimate aspirations of both peoples. Instead, we unfortunately see escalating violence in the West Bank against Palestinian civilians, who have the right to live in peace on
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV has lamented rising violence in the occupied West Bank and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying Palestinians had the right to live peacefully in their “own land.”
“Sadly, there has been an increase in violence in the West Bank against the Palestinian civilian population, which has the right to live in peace in its own land,” said the US pope, adding that civilians in Gaza also should be assured “a future of lasting peace and justice in their own land.”
During his annual meeting with diplomats accredited to the Vatican to exchange New Year greetings, the Pope said the “humanitarian suffering of civilians continues despite the ceasefire announced in October, adding to the hardships they have already endured.”
He added: The Holy See closely follows every diplomatic initiative aimed at ensuring a future of lasting peace and justice for Palestinians in Gaza, for all Palestinians, and for all Israelis.”
The two-state solution “remains the institutional framework that addresses the legitimate aspirations of both peoples. Instead, we unfortunately see escalating violence in the West Bank against Palestinian civilians, who have the right to live in peace on their land,” he said.
“War is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading,” Pope Leo said, warning that the “weakness of multilateralism is a particular cause for concern.”
“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies,” the pope said.
