Our trainer Agatha educating businesswomen at a stall in Sondu Town/Market.

Our trainers on a home visit, educating women as they do their laundry

News updates 
BCARP training staff reach 1,312 women in 4 months
Four months after launching an aggressive campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer, Dala’s breast health outreach staff members have been able to reach more than 1312 women and men.
Our approach: The success in reaching many women is totally by God's grace, and to an extent through the approach we have taken.  Our educators reach out to women by going door to door in an effort to locate women. In this door to door campaign our staff members visit places- homes, schools, health centers, churches, shops, and farmers markets - where women normally are , or like to congregate, recruit and teach them. Most of the time or staff members teach them right there and then. 
The success: In just 4 months our 4 trainers have educated 1312 women (and some men). Every month* they reach more than 300 women and some men. The staff is on high demand and do get random phone calls from women groups, or women at market centers asking for training session.
*Note: Our trainers work only 16 days a month.

BCARP staff launches door-to-door breast awareness campaign for rural Kenyan villages
        Dala Development Program officially launched its door to door breast awareness campaign seeking to reach thousands of women in rural villages in Kisumu area, Kenya.  This campaign seeks to provide breast cancer information and referral services to  both women and men.  Through this outreach  our staff members try to locate women within their homesteads (doing laundry, gardening, cooking, etc), shops and market centers, and at schools and recruit them for educational sessions.  If they are interested, our staff educate them right there and then.  
        If they meet a woman and she is not ready (or if the husband is at home but the wife is away) our staff members hand out a strip of paper with a message (below in Swahili).  The message challenges them to overcome breast cancer and save their lives by getting educated.  It asks a woman to gather with 5 other women, and call our trainers to schedule a training session, if she is interested.
 SHINDA KANSA YA MATITI!!   PATA MAFUNZO YA BURE. OKOA MAISHA YAKO KWA KUGUNDUA DALILI YA KANSA MAPEMA, NA KUTIBIWA. KUPATA MAFUNZO YA KUGUNDUA DALILI, UNGANA PAMOJA NA WANAWAKE 5, KISHA PIGIA SIMU WAKUFUNZI WETU: Agatha 0727390687;Beatrice 0725633221
        If after a session someone finds anything that feels like a lump, or observe any changes on their breasts we make two kinds of referrals.  One, if they are still breast feeding, we advice them to visit the local clinic just in case it is a normal breast infections.  And we schedule to make a follow up visit at their home.  Two, if a woman has symptoms but is not breast feeding, we counsel her to allay any fears and schedule a follow up visit within a week.  During this visit our staff, including our field (emotional and spiritual) support members talk to her and her husband and explain to them the value of getting screened.  They also try to find out if any barriers (such as financial difficulties, cultural beliefs, fear, etc) exist that would prevent them from getting screened or treated, and ways to overcome those barriers. 
        Our staff also provide women with hospital referral details such as screening and treatment centers (Nyanza Provincial Hospital or Kisumu Hospice,  a private entity that provides treatment), screening costs (Mammogram costs Kshs 1400=$ 18.70), and link them to our  contact person in Kisumu to help them navigate hospital services and system.   
        Our staff continue to make follow up visits until the woman (or man) is in the clear. We look at our outreach as a relationship based process in which our staff walk alongside 'patients' and their families from awarereness stage to healed (physical, emotional and spiritual) state.  So far this approach has been the most effective, inexpensive and personable way of reaching many village women.

BCARP Staff attend First ever Non- Communicable Diseases Forum in Nairobi, Kenya
August 2011:   Dala staff members recently had the privilege of attending Kenya’s First National Forum on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) held in Nairobi.   The forum, whose theme was Strengthening Health Systems for Non-Communicable Diseases in Kenya, was inaugurated by Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga, accompanied by Medical Services Minister, Professor Anyang Nyongo.
 The forum was monumental and a big step in the right direction by the Government of Kenya (GoK) as it launches an ambitious campaign to make cancer care available and accessible to thousands of desperate Kenyan.  Prime Minister Odinga called for an increase in public awareness and education campaigns relating to Non- communicable diseases, since many Kenyans are either not informed or ill informed.  Professor Nyon’go, a cancer survivor himself, said his ministry was working on a National Cancer Strategy - to be tabled in parliament as the Cancer Bill- that would provide funding mechanism for cancer treatment and care for Kenyans.
During the meeting Dala representatives met, exchange contacts, and notes with other stakeholders and representatives working in this field. Some of the representatives met were from Ministry of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, Africa Cancer Foundation, German Development Agency- GIZ, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and community groups working in this field.  
* The Forum was organized by Ministry of Medical Services, and Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation.
To read more about this meeting click this link; http://www.afro.who.int/fr/kenya/press-materials/item/3333-first-national-forum-on-non-communicable-diseases.html

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