Over 17 thousand women receive breast self-examination instructions

Project "Breast Cancer Awareness and Prevention for Women in Northern provinces of Vietnam" funded by Yokogawa Group (Japan) through People’s Hope-Japan was implemented by Vietnam Women's Union from 2013 to 2015 in 5 provinces namely Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Hai Phong, Hung Yen and Thai Nguyen, with a budget of $72,000. The Project goal is to improve women’s awareness and knowledge o­n breast cancer, their breast self-examination skills for early detection of tumors, lumps, thus contributing to reducing mortality and morbidity rates of breast cancer among women aged 30-70 in Vietnam.

After 3 years of the Project implementation, many specific activities have been organized. Materials o­n breast cancer prevention and control have been compiled and updated based o­n professional documents with technical support from the donor, experts and doctors of K Hospital. The materials have been designed in many forms such as training manual (292 copies), posters (36 copies), flyers (10,000 copies), DVD (351 copies) o­n self-breast examination instructions, using breast model (38 sets) that are user-friendly for VWU staff and communicators in providing communication as well as easy for women to understand and remember.

During the visit to Vietnam by the delegation led by Mr. Jun Yokogawa, YCL’s President (Japan) to review and evaluate 3-year implementation of the Project "Breast Cancer Awareness Prevention for Women in Northern provinces of Vietnam", and to hand over the Project to the VWU, VWU President Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa had a meeting with the delegation o­n Jan. 16th, 2016. Mme Thanh Hoa expressed thanks to YCL Corporation and Mr. Jun Yokogawa for supporting such a significant project, improving Vietnamese women’s awareness and knowledge o­n breast cancer and health protection.

Over three years, nearly 400 VWU staff and grassroots communicators received training o­n breast cancer, breast self-examination skills. These trainees play a key role in monthly public communication sessions. With oil spread method (1 person introduces/disseminates to at least 1 person), 305 communication sessions o­n breast cancer prevention and breast self-examination instructions were held, attracting the participation of 17,356 women in the 5 provinces of the project.

In fact, many women are aware of the need of regular breast checking for early detection of possible abnormalities, tumors and lumps. However, most of them do not know how to check and self-examine. Therefore, at community-based communication sessions, VWU staff, and communicators provided specific instructions to women o­n breast self-examination and checked if they have right skill. After 3 years, over 90% of Project beneficiaries know how to self-check breast after receiving training, compared to 59% when the Project started. Through the breast self-examination in community-based communication sessions, 131 women discovered lumps in their breasts. The Project recommended them to the hospital for examination and testing, and 23 women were treated.

Mrs. Tran Thi Huong, VWU Vice President shared that Vietnamese rural women have less chance of accessing health care information. Especially, they are very shy and reluctant to have breast examination at the medical facility. Therefore, the project activities and results achieved over the past 3 years are truly meaningful and practical. The Vice President added that the VWU has integrated the project contents into the VWU’s such activities for improving women’s knowledge and skills as safe motherhood, nutrition care, HIV/AIDS prevention and control, thus helping them to provide better health care for themselves and their families,... These activities will be further implemented, incorporated in VWU's programs o­n "Building the happy and sustainability family", and the nationwide campaign "Building the family of 5 Without-s and 3 Clean-s", which will require significant resources to implement.

At the Project 3-year implementation Review Workshop "Breast Cancer Awareness and Prevention for Women in Northern provinces of Vietnam” held in Hanoi o­n 14 January, 2016, Mr. Jun Yokogawa, YCL’s President presented 50 breast models to the VWU with a desire to provide better health, safety and happiness to more Vietnamese women.