Zurak Cancer Foundation

Zurak Cancer Foundation is a policy oriented and service delivery non-governmental organization providing solutions to the cancer prevalence in the country through awareness, education and free screening programs in hard to reach communities and slums. Zurak Cancer Foundation was established on 27^th April 2014 by the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdul Samed Zurak. In Africa, the most prevalent types of cancer are related to infectious agents such as the human papillomavirus and the hepatitis virus. Zurak Cancer Foundation bases its core values on the most prevalent types of cancer such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer and liver cancer. Last year, Zurak Cancer Foundation joined an incubation space the Merck Entrepreneurial Development Space under the Impact Hub Accra Health Innovation program to scale its endeavors to maximize impact.

Awareness

Zurak Cancer Foundation provides awareness programs for the most prevalent types of cancers within the awareness month.  This initiative seeks encourage the public and medical professionals on the prevalent rate of cancer in the country. Awareness programs cover disease campaign and advocacy to the relevant stakeholders in Ghana to take up initiatives to stem the prevalence rate of the disease in Ghana. Just like Zurak Cancer Foundation organized an initiative dubbed “Cervicus Hackathon” to create awareness on cervical cancer among young girls in slums through a hackathon to come up with ideas on the solution to the prevalent rate of cervical cancer in their communities. As part of our awareness program, Zurak Cancer Foundation partnered with Prostate Cancer UK to create awareness on prostate cancer in Ghana. As part of the partnership, Zurak Cancer Foundation developed an initiative “Pharms & Pros” to stock pharmacies with prostate cancer leaflets and awareness materials to provide further information on the disease to older men in Ghana.

Education

Zurak Cancer Foundation provides education on various types of cancer on its social media platforms, infographs at medical institutions, community based education in partnership with community leaders and religious institution. Moreover, the primary beneficiaries of the education program involve the youth and Zurak Cancer Foundation has offered education programs in secondary and tertiary institutions to pass out relevant information about the disease to the youth. Recently, Zurak Cancer Foundation developed an initiative dubbed “Market Invasion” in partnership with SOS Children’s Village and Female Cancer Foundation to educate market women on cervical cancer in local dialect.

Screening

Zurak Cancer Foundation provides free screening programs with respect to the various types of cancer under the portfolio of the organization. Over the past three (3) years, Zurak Cancer Foundation has organized community based screening programs to integrate an early detection policy into the health habit of Ghanaians. With regards to liver cancer, Zurak Cancer Foundation established partnership with Amen Scientific Herbal Hospital to provide free hepatitis B screenings in various communities in Ghana. Moreover, with partnership with Breast Care International, Zurak Cancer Foundation organizes yearly free clinical breast examination to check for lumps in breast amongst women in Ghana. Also, the breast screening program covers a clinical breast examination training and counseling to encourage women to screen for the disease. Currently, Zurak Cancer Foundation landed a partnership deal with Medi Moses Prostate Center to provide free PSA test to men above the age of 40 within our communities in Ghana. Finally, Zurak Cancer Foundation established a partnership with Visualize from the University of Michigan to train medical professionals on Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) which is the most affordable type of cervical cancer screening in Ghana. This initiative seeks to develop the interest of medical professionals as the best alternative to cervical cancer screening considering cost evaluations.

Objectives

• ·         Raise awareness about cancer among communities, health professionals and policy makers.
• ·         Integrate early detection and screening into health systems and invest in a skilled workforce to deliver early detection.
• ·         Empower individuals with the right to health.
• ·         Promote an enabling environment for healthy living in our communities and urge governments to invest in healthy systems that support healthy lives.
• ·         Empower individuals to maximize their quality of life.
• ·         Foster communities and health systems that support the highest quality of life.
• ·         Advocate for governments to enable access to palliative care.
• ·         Strengthen health systems that deliver cancer prevention and care services.
• ·         Improve access to essential cancer medicines and technologies.
• ·         Reduce the financial toll of cancer on individuals and families.

Achievements

• Nescafe Get Started Africa Awards – Nomination (Pre Health Hack Accra)
• Nelson Mandela Graca-Machel Innovation Awards – Nomination (Pre Health Hack Accra)
• Ghana Tertiary Awards (Most Influential Student Foundation) – Nomination
• Africa Youth Awards (Health Personality) – Nomination
• Ghana StartUp Awards (Best Social Enterprise) – Nomination
• You for G20 (#youforG20) – Nomination
• Unsung Hero under Unsung Heroes Initiative for January 2017
• British Active Citizen Leadership Fellow
• 2017 Johnson & Johnson Scholar

Impact

The impact measurement of Zurak Cancer Foundation defines the basis of its credibility. Zurak Cancer Foundation measures its impact based on activities related to the organization. On our awareness programs, impact is measured based of the patronization integrated with our awareness programs and depending on our outreach and social media reach out we are sure to have reached to close to 3,500 individuals over the past three (3) years. Based on our education programs, Zurak Cancer Foundation has reached out to 27 institutions with an estimated impact of 2,700 for the past three years. Also with the market invasion, Zurak Cancer Foundation has been able to reach out to 3,000 women both directly and indirectly and these projections were made based on the leaflets handed out during the market invasion initiative and the groupings of the market women during interactions. The strongest initiative of the organization involves the community based screening programs in hard to reach communities and slums. Zurak Cancer Foundation has been able to screen close to 5,000 Ghanaians in partnership with medical institutions who feel the need to impact the lives of Ghanaians through our early detection policy. Finally, Zurak Cancer Foundation reached a partnership agreement with Sweden Ghana Medical Center to provide access to quality healthcare to Ghanaians. Sweden Ghana Medical Center is the best private oncology clinic within the West African sub region.