More employees trained in their fight against breast cancer
Dubai Chamber initiative of ‘Making it Our Business’ sees more Charter companies’ staff participate in the 3rd Train the Trainer programme
The 3rd Train the Trainer programme for the ongoing “Making it Our Business” fight against breast cancer campaign, a social awareness initiative led by Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry in association with Vital Voices Global Partnership and the US Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research, was held at the Mayo Clinic Conference Room in Dubai Healthcare City on Monday.
A total of 19 female staff members from five Charter companies, participated in the day-long programme facilitated by Nasseem Rouhani, a Master Trainer and Coordinator of the “Making It Our Business” programme in Dubai. Staff members from Dubai Chamber, General Motors, Dubai Holding, Al Tayer and BurJuman were trained on topics like breast cancer statistics, risk factors, screening and treatment. These trainees are mandated to go back to their companies and spread the message to fellow workers on the significance of regular breast cancer screening and how it can save lives.
Under the three Train-the-Trainer sessions held thus far, a total of 80 individuals have been trained and hundreds of employees have been reached through the "Making It Our Business" programme which was launched by Dubai Chamber in the presence of US First Lady Laura Bush last October. The 12 participating companies in the project include Dubai Chamber, Dubai Holding, Emaar Properties, Dubai World, Al Tayer Group, BurJuman, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, General Electric, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Federal Express and Microsoft. The campaign’s goal is to mitigate the effects of breast cancer on participating companies’ employees and customer base and demonstrate the importance of public-private partnerships.
Today, Breast Cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. In the Middle East alone 70% of the cases are diagnosed in the advanced stages while in the UAE, breast cancer is the most common cancer found in women among both nationals and non-nationals with 63% occurrence in ages 35-54 for national women and 71% occurrence for non-nationals while breast cancer in UAE men is recorded as 1 out of 184 and 5 out of 598 occurrence in non-national men. Out of the 179 cases diagnosed, 77 have died bringing the percentage of cancer deaths to 44%.
The world figures are quite alarming as out of the 1.1million cases, 4,10,712 (about 35%) sufferers died from the dreaded disease which calls for a better understanding of the problem as experts in the field say that though the main reason for the disease is still unknown, the risk factor can be reduced to a larger extent by bringing about changes in lifestyle and increasing the tests for early detection of cancer. An estimated 4.4 million women are alive today in whom breast cancer was diagnosed within the last 15 years.
