Goemakrponn desk
PANAJI: International cricketing icon and humanitarian Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Foundation has launched the ‘Swasth Mahila, Swasth Goa’ initiative in partnership with the SBI Foundation and the Government of Goa.
Under this initiative, free breast cancer screening will be done for 1 lakh women in Goa, thereby ensuring that 50% of the age-eligible female population in the State is screened.
The initiative was launched today at Goa Medical College & Hospital by Vishwajit P. Rane, Hon’ble Minister of Health, Women & Child Development, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Industries, Trade & Commerce, Government of Goa. Other key dignitaries who were present on this occasion include Smt. Shabnam Singh, Chairperson, YouWeCan Foundation; Smt. Manjula Kalyanasundaram, Managing Director, SBI Foundation; Shri. Aman Bhaiya, Assistant Vice President & Program Head, SBI Foundation; Dr. Ira Almeida, Director Health Services, Govt. of Goa; Prof. Dr. S. M. Bandekar, Dean, Goa Medical College & Hospital; Shri. Sudhir M Galande, Deputy CEO, Indian Institute of Banking & Finance; and Shri Bhaumik Sanghvi, Co-Founder & COO, UE Life Sciences.
Regarding this initiative, Yuvraj Singh said, “Having fought through cancer myself, I firmly believe that this disease can be cured if it is detected early and given the correct treatment. And this is our mission with the Swasth Mahila, Swasth Goa initiative. Women are the backbone of our society and we are committed to making every effort for their health and wellbeing.”
Thanking the project partners as well as the Government of Goa, he added, “Your vision for using technology innovations for the greater good of society has made this project possible.”
Addressing the audience at the launch ceremony, Vishwajit Rane said, “This initiative is something I have been pushing for a very long time. During one of my visits to New York, I met Mr Mihir Shah, Founder of UE Life Sciences, and we had a very long chat on taking forward this initiative with this support. I thank the YouWeCan foundation and SBI Foundation for putting this initiative for us where we will be screening 1,00,000 women for breast cancer. Initially, we had aimed to screen 20,000 women, but it sounded unacceptable to me as it will hardly have any impact.”
Further adding to this address, he recalled his efforts during his earlier tenure as Health Minister where they launched Mini vans to screen women for breast cancer. Also appreciated the ground level efforts of the CDPOs in sensitizing all the women of the State on crucial issues. He further added, “Our aim is to train all the ANMs & Anganwadi workers to reach out to all the villages and screen women for Breast cancer so that we are able to save lives and they do not have to go through the trauma of surgery and other things.”
Under this initiative, breast cancer screening will be conducted at 35 Health Centres across Goa along with multiple outreach camps. 20 iBreast devices will be deployed for the project – 10 in North Goa and 10 in South Goa. All the suspected cases will be referred to the Goa Medical College & Hospital and district hospitals for further investigations as well as complete treatment. Moreover, YouWeCan Foundation’s project team will facilitate training and capacity building of the Government’s health workers and auxiliary nurse midwives to screen for breast cancer using iBreast device. Training will also be conducted for Counsellors and IEC officers on how to counsel the suspected cases.
