Manifesto on Childhood Cancer Emerges from Meeting in Senegal
 |
At the Dakar meeting, experiences were shared by representatives from Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Honduras, Italy, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, the Netherlands, Paraguay, the Philippines, The Republic of Congo, Senegal, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States. Dr. Joe Harford, director of NCI's Office of International Affairs and member of the My Child Matters steering committee, represented NCI at the meeting and gave the opening lecture, “The Burden of Cancer in Africa.”
Meeting participants signed the Dakar Manifesto, which calls on all stakeholders and institutions concerned for more participation and action to improve the outcome of childhood cancers around the world.
My Child Matters is one of the largest initiatives dedicated to fighting childhood cancer in low- and middle-income countries. With support from sanofi-aventis, it has supported 33 field projects led by hospitals and nongovernmental organizations in 21 countries on 4 continents to improve cancer care, including providing better information, education, and prevention; improving professional training and ensuring earlier diagnosis; fostering better access to health care, pain management, and palliative care; and increasing understanding of the social aspects of this disease, both for children and their families. By the end of 2008, more than 12,800 children and 6,600 families had been helped by this program, and some 2,850 health care professionals had received training.
