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Photo credit: Nafkot Gebeyehu, courtesy of Grounds for Health
A WORLD WITHOUT CERVICAL CANCER DEATHS IS POSSIBLE.
The knowledge and technology exist to eliminate cervical cancer with effective, low-cost tools, even in the poorest parts of the world. TogetHER is a global partnership ensuring the elimination of cervical cancer through advocacy, partnership, and knowledge-sharing, enabling equitable access to effective prevention and care.
Today we are communicating difficult news. We at TogetHER for Health have decided to sunset our operations in the coming weeks, closing out a journey that began in 2018.
As you know, cervical cancer needlessly kills millions of women, devastating families and communities. Our co-founders, Kathy Vizas and Celina Schocken, believed that cervical cancer – and indeed women’s health writ large – needed more champions and more resources to create lasting change.
Kathy and Celina launched TogetHER for Health in 2018 to educate, inform, and empower implementers, policymakers, and everyday people to take action to prevent this disease. In 2020, Heather White joined as TogetHER’s Executive Director and have since worked with so many of you to fight for a world without cervical cancer.
While we are disappointed to sunset operations, we are encouraged by the achievements of our small team, through partnership and collaboration.
As we close out our final weeks, TogetHER for Health wants to express our sincere gratitude and admiration for our partnerships over the past eight years. We hope that you will carry on our core message: no matter where they live, women and girls deserve a world free of cervical cancer. We’re confident that world is closer to reality thanks to our work together.
Fundación SalBo is collaborating with INMUBO Research at Universidad El Bosque to test the use of urine-based samples for HPV DNA detection. Because women can sample themselves, urine-based screening would reduce the number of women - especially in rural areas - needing to travel to a health facility for a cervical screening. Click here to meet Fundación SalBo, including their founder, cervical cancer survivor Bertha Liliana Borrero Figueroa.
Community-led cervical cancer prevention programs in low- and middle-income countries are leading the way to eliminating cervical cancer elimination - but they can’t do it alone.
TogetHER supports Fundación SalBo through our Cervical Cancer Grants Program. You can take action to eliminate cervical cancer in communities around the world by giving to our Prevention is the Point campaign, generating the resources behind our Grants Program.
June is National Cancer Survivors Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the millions of individuals who have lived through a cancer diagnosis and to draw inspiration from their personal stories.
For cervical cancer survivors, this can go beyond sharing a difficult journey. No woman who has experienced this disease wants to see another go down that path. And some survivors feel a special calling to make the case for effective prevention: vaccination, screening, and treatment.
This was a major topic of discussion at an April training TogetHER for Health organized in Birmingham, Alabama with our partners at VAX 2 STOP CANCER and the Laura Crandall Brown Foundation. We gathered several women’s cancer survivors in Alabama to discuss their experiences and build their skills as vocal champions for women’s health. Meet some of these courageous survivors in our new video.
Vaccinating young women and girls against HPV will be key to eliminating cervical cancer for future generations to come. An innovative project in Nepal shows how HPV vaccination programs can also be a launching point for expanding access to screening and preventive treatment.
Our friends at Moonshine Agency – the filmmakers behind the Conquering Cancer documentary series – have produced a short video spotlighting KMC Alumni Health Sector’s creative approach to protecting multiple generations against cervical cancer.
Last year, Nepal launched its national HPV vaccination campaign to boost protection against HPV-related cancers. Click here to learn how KMC Alumni Health Sector is getting more adult women screened and treated by sending HPV self-testing kits home with vaccinated girls, collecting samples, and connecting women to follow-up services. This program is an exciting step toward ensuring that multiple generations are being protected against this preventable cancer.
Cervical cancer is the only cancer the world can realistically eliminate—but only if women and girls have access to HPV vaccines, cervical cancer screening, and timely follow-up care, no matter where they are. Local communities already know what works. With the right resources and collaboration, grassroots solutions aren’t just more affordable—they’re more effective.
We at TogetHER know this from our first-hand experience working with innovators and advocates through our Cervical Cancer Grants Program. After six years and thousands reached with lifesaving services, we’re thrilled to share a new report that summarizes the Grant Program’s outsized impact and profiles the tremendous organizations we’ve been privileged to support.
