Introducing Voices TogetHER, Telling Cervical Health’s Story 

9 January, 2025

Every January, TogetHER for Health joins our partners in commemorating Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, a time to inform others about the importance of cervical health, celebrate progress towards global cervical cancer elimination, and raise our collective voice to hold decision makers accountable to commitments – or lack thereof – to increase access to the vaccines, screening and early treatment that can save women’s lives from this preventable cancer. 

You’ll see a lot of statements this month lead with the dire statistics. In 2022 – the most recent year for which we have data – roughly 660,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer, while 342,000 women lost their lives to the disease. Over ninety percent of cervical cancer deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. And these statistics are undoubtedly underestimated, given the extremely low percentage of women who have ever been screened for cervical cancer – only one out of three women globally. 

These unacceptably high numbers of new cases and deaths can make the movement to eliminate cervical cancer seem daunting – but nothing could be further from the truth. Such statistics can obscure the stories of individuals impacted by cervical cancer and of the critical work being undertaken to preserve lives and communities. We think it’s time to shift the perspective and highlight stories offering a personal window on this disease and the work being undertaken to prevent it. 

This year, we’re launching Voices TogetHER, an ongoing series shining a light on both people and programs striving tirelessly to inspire, educate and ultimately reach girls and women with information and services to reduce cervical cancer risk among women today, and protect girls in the future. Each of these stories will look a bit different, but the common thread that ties them all together is a commitment to preserve and improve the lives of those at risk from cervical cancer. 

We’re excited to kick off the series today by sharing this short video which provides perspective on our work, our programs, our priorities, and our partners, some of whom we’ll be highlighting in future Voices TogetHER installments. 

But, there’s a story behind our story. The seed that grew into TogetHER was planted when our co-founder and chief strategy officer, Kathy Vizas, collaborated with Population Services International’s team in India to implement a cervical cancer screening program in the state of Uttar Pradesh. At that time, our executive director, Heather White, was leading PSI’s non-communicable disease (NCD) work and was fortunate to travel with Kathy to better understand the constraints and opportunities on the ground. 

The ‘Sampoorna’ model clinics were a big success. By integrating cervical cancer screening and treatment into women’s preventive health services, they enabled 150,000 women to be screened, the great majority for the first time in their lives. Just as importantly, Uttar Pradesh supported a scale-up of Sampoorna services throughout the State’s district level hospitals. You can read more about that project here. 

This experience inspired Kathy to co-found TogetHER in 2017 with women’s health expert, Celina Schocken. Heather joined as Executive Director in 2020, forming the core of our small but mighty team. From our founding, we have put all our focus into advocating and fighting for resources and visibility to improve cervical health around the globe. 

We hope this window into our team and priorities is a useful way to start the year, and launch our new Voices TogetHER series. We look forward to sharing more of these stories throughout 2025!