Around 30,000
people die from Cancer every year
in Kenya
Mission
Objectives:
- No one should suffer in silence or feel isolated
- No one should be neglected and discriminated against
- Everyone should be treated with dignity
- Everyone has a right to equal healthcare regardless of their financial status
Goals
- Reduce the number of deaths from Cancer in the underprivileged communities in Kenya
- Providing much-needed support, assistance, and individual attention that is crucial for cancer patients physical and mental well-being
- Provide knowledge that will inform cancer prevention and control in Africa that will reduce the number of deaths from cancer and improve the quality of life of cancer patients, survivors and caregivers
- Achieve equal access to Healthcare for all
Stop
Cervical
Cancer
with president uhuru | october 2019
History
Milicent Kagonga is a cervical cancer survivor and the founder of the Symbol of Hope Warriors, a community-based organisation in Kariobangi, Nairobi. She is an avid HPV vaccine ambassador and is the first mother in Kenya to get her daughter vaccinated against cervical cancer as she never wanted her daughter to go through what she went through after her cancer diagnosis. She advocates towards vaccination of young girls towards a cancer-free nation.
Her passion of taking care of cancer sufferers comes from her personal experience of having gone through the journey herself. The challenges and the barriers she had to overcome to be where she is today. She discovered she had Cervical Cancer at the age of 20. It was a difficult journey because she had to go through it with her children as her main carers.
Her marriage ended because of the bleeding, discharge and the bad odour all of which her husband was not able to cope with. Without no source of income, her illness reduced her to a beggar living on handouts. She was lucky to come across a good samaritan who was willing to fund her treatment. Treatments involved 3 sessions of Chemotherapy, 25 sessions of Radiotherapy and 3 Brachytherapy sessions.
The treatment did not come with out a lesson.
Milicent asked herself how she would have managed if it had not been for the woman who came to her aid. For that reason, she felt it was her responsibility to give back to her community. While seeking treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital, Milicent also received a lot of love and encouragement from other patients which she found gave her strength to go through the tough times. She feels it is only right that she supports other patients in the same manner.
She also found that there was a lack of education on Cancer and many were suffering from Cancer-Related stigma within her community with many left on their own by their families and isolated by their communities because of the disease. In order to have a central place for resources for Cancer Suffers in the underprivileged communities of Nairobi, Milicent set up Symbol of Hope Warriors, an organisation that supports cancer patients and survivors. Apart from taking care of each other, Milicent encourages the members to be a part of some of the training within the group like soap production, bead making which helps to support the patients financially.